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Article In: Linguistic Variation: Online-First Articles

A prosodic analysis of the Head Final Filter effects and beyond

ORCiD logo with link | Sapporo University
 | The University of Tokyo
 | Asahikawa Medical University
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Abstract
The orders of noun (N) and adjective modified by an adpositional phrase (A PP) in the world’s languages have been explained by the Head Final Filter (HFF) (Williams, Edwin. (1982). Another argument that passive is transformational. Linguistic Inquiry 131, 160–163.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and the Final-over-Final Constraint (FOFC) (Biberauer, Theresa, Anders Holmberg & Ian Roberts. (2014). A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry 451, 169–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Sheehan, Michelle. (2017). The Final-over-final condition and the head-final filter. In Michelle Sheehan, Theresa Biberauer, Ian Roberts & Anders Holmberg (eds.), The final-over-final condition: A syntactic universal, 121–149. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Alexeyenko, Sascha & Hedde Zeijlstra. (2021). (Dis)obeying the head-final filter. West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 371, 50–58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar argue that the HFF can be violated in languages with rich agreement morphology, and propose the Phrase Continuity Requirement (PCR). However, there are some languages that have rich morphology but obey the HFF. As an alternative approach to the orders of N, A and PP, we generalize the HFF and the FOFC into a prosodic constraint, the Minimal Prosodic Boundaries constraint (MPB), which requires that a constituent be externalized with minimal boundaries between its sub-constituents. The variation in possible orders is correctly predicted by an additional rule, the Mapping of Left Bracket Sequence (MLBS), and by language-specific stress patterns. We further argue that our prosodic account can also explain the counterexamples to the HFF and the FOFC.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Head Final Filter and the Final-over-Final Constraint
  • 3.Rich morphology and the HFF
  • 4.Minimal Prosodic Boundaries (MPB)
    • 4.1Generalizing the HFF and the FOFC into a prosodic constraint
    • 4.2Prosodic constraints on free linearization
  • 5.Explaining counterexamples to the HFF and the FOFC
    • 5.1Stress location and the MPB
    • 5.2Tough-adjectives, comparatives and phrasal compounds
    • 5.3Head-final VP over head-initial DP/PP in German
    • 5.4Head-final particles in VO languages
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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