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Licence to govern*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2008

Jonathan Kaye  and
Monik Charette
Monik Charette
Affiliation:
SOAS, University of London
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Extract

In this paper I consider the behaviour of word-internal empty nuclei preceded by a consonant cluster. I provide a principled account for the fact that in this context a properly governable empty nucleus receives a phonetic interpretation. To do so I introduce a new notion: GOVERNMENT-LICENSING. I argue that a non-nuclear head can govern a complement only if (i) it has the required charm value, or if charmless, the required complexity, and (ii) it is licensed to govern by a following nuclear head. Among other things government-licensing accounts for the phonetic realisation of an empty nucleus following a governing onset head (i.e. a non-nuclear skeletal point which governs a rhymal or an onset complement), and for the simplification of a consonant cluster preceding an unrealised empty nucleus. If, in order to govern a complement, a nonnuclear point must be government-licensed and if a properly governed empty nucleus may not be such a licenser, in a situation where a properly governable empty nucleus follows a consonant cluster we predict the two following possibilities: to license the consonant to govern, the empty nucleus will fail to be properly governed, or proper government will apply, preventing the non-nuclear head from governing its complement, which entails the loss of this head.

Type
Phonological government
Information
Phonology , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , May 1990 , pp. 233 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

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