Topics in syntax-phonology interface in Turkish: sentential stress and phases

Abstract

This study investigates the nature of sentential stress, how it is assigned and how it interacts with focus structure and discourse pragmatic factors in Turkish. Recent work inthe literature (Legate 2003, Kahnemuyipour 2004, Selkirk and Kratzer 2005) point out that phonological component of the language faculty is sensitive to phases and multipleSpell-out (Chomsky 2000, 2001) as domains wherein sentential stress is assigned. Thepresent study explores the possibility of accounting for Turkish sentential stress facts byusing the notions of phases and multiple Spell-out in the light of these previous studies. Following Kahnemuyipour (2004) and Selkirk and Kratzer (2005), it is argued thatsentential stress is assigned to the highest element in the Spell-out in focus-neutralcontexts. It is shown that this kind of a sentential stress assignment mechanism accountsfor the unusual stress behaviour of unaccusative, passive, unergative structures and structures containing manner adverbials.An investigation of accusative-marked objects reveals that there is also anothermechanism regulating the stress patterns. It is argued that the accusative-marked objectsin Turkish are subject to the discourse anaphora generalization proposed by Neeleman and Reinhart (1998). It is shown that D-linked accusative-marked objects are unstressed whereas non-D-linked ones can bear stress. It is also proposed that there is a type of optional scrambling in Turkish that is sensitive to intonational phrasing and that does not have discourse pragmatic functions.It is argued that optional scrambling is allowed as long as the intonational phrasing iskept intact. Finally, it is argued that the conditions on subject ellipsis is looser than that of object ellipsis in that they are sensitive to different givenness types.