Francesc Josep Torres-Tamarit (UAB) ‘Diminutives in Spanish: Cyclicity, allomorphy, prosody’

Seminari del CLT

Divendres, 8 de maig de 2026
Hora 15:30
Aula 202, Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres

Abstract:
In this paper I assess the data on Peninsular Spanish diminutives against an articulated theory of nominal classes in Spanish within Stratal Phonology (Bermúdez-Otero 2013). As opposed to many previous monostratal approaches (see Smith 2011:§2), the analysis developed in this paper upholds a high standard of modularity. First, no morphological (e.g., nominal class) or syntactic property (e.g., diminutive), is named in the statement of the phonological constraints, except for ‘stem’ in alignment constraints (according to the Indirect Reference Hypothesis, Bermúdez-Otero 2012:77). Secondly, the high standard of modularity is also grounded in cyclicity: morphosyntactic structure determines the cyclic domains in which allomorph selection is resolved by controlling the size and stratal affiliation of domains for phonological computation.