The puzzle of Kashmiri stress: implications for weight theory

Abstract

There are currently many proposals for analysing cross-linguistic vowel length and consonant weight patterns within an Optimality Theory (OT) framework. The basic claim is that vowel length and consonant weight are determined by the interaction of markedness constraints on moraic content and constraints requiring faithfulness to underlying moraicity.

In this paper, I will show how the constraints used in one such proposal (Morén 1999) provide an analysis of the core syllable weight of Kashmiri, and that the inclusion of several other constraints proposed in the literature allows us to account for the previously puzzling distribution of stress in this language. Besides the empirical importance of both providing an analysis of Kashmiri stress and weight and demonstrating a language type predicted by Morén's weight typology, an added theoretical point is the demonstration that closed syllables may vary in weight depending on surface stress assignment. This is in line with work of Kager (1989), Hayes (1995), Rice (1996) and Broselow et al. (1997), but in contrast with many other theories which treat consonant weight for a particular segment in a given syllabic position as static within a given language. Further, the OT analysis presented here provides the necessary tools to allow the expression of weight hierarchies, while maintaining the restrictive theory of weight offered by a single-tiered moraic approach.