Armin Mester

Syntax-prosody mapping and recursion-based subcategories

Recursion-based subcategories in a simplified model of the prosodic hierarchy; theoretical development and case studies (abstract). The role of strict layering and prosodic recursion; proclisis in English and German; minimal and maximal projections of the phonological phrase in Japanese; Presented at OCP 4 (Old World Conference in Phonology)--Rhodes, Greece, January 2007 and at the Second Atami Phonology Festa (PAIK-TCP Joint Meeting), Atami, Japan, February 2007. Click for abstract and pdf-slides ("Categories and projections in prosodic structure").

1. Recursion-based subcategories and the prosodic typology of compound structures in Japanese. Presented at FAJL (Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics, Osaka, Japan, August 2006) and at PAIK (Kobe University, November 2006). Click for abstract and paper ("Prosodic Adjunction in Japanese Compounds"). Appeared as Ito and Mester 2007.

2. The extended prosodic word [with Junko Ito]. In Kabak, Baris, and Jaent Grijzenhout, eds. 2009. Phonological Domains: Universals and Derivations. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton de Gruyter. pp.135-194.

3. Recursive prosodic phrasing in Japanese [with Junko Ito]. In the Proceedings of the 18th Japanese/Korean Conference. Stanford, CA: CSLI, 147-164, and in: Toni
   Borowsky, Shigeto Kawahara, Takahito Shinya and Mariko Sugahara, eds., forthcoming.Prosody matters: Essays in honor of Elisabeth Selkirk. London:
   Equinox Publishers.

4. The onset of the prosodic word. The final-C syndrome, English r-sandhi, and the constraints on syllable and word onsets. In Steve Parker, ed. 2009. Phonological Argumentation: Essays on Evidence and Motivation. London: Equinox. pp.227-260.
Click for abstract and pdf ms.

Pitch accent and the emergence of unaccentedness

• For words of specific prosodic profiles in Japanese, such as LLLL (four light syllables), unaccentedness is a default because it fulflls both Nonfinality of accent (no accent on a final daughter of ω) and Rightmostness of accent (no accent on a foot that is not the last foot in the word). Short words (bimoraic and monomoraic) are again accented, in violation of Nonfinality, because this allows for the construction of what we call the "perfect prosodic word" (which is not attainable for longer items). Other languages with perfect word effects include Serbian and Danish. Presented at Biwako Festa, Japan (February 18-19, 2010) and at the 321st regular meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan (PSJ) (December 11, 2010, at Dokkyo University, Tokyo).

Lexical classes in phonology

• The synchronic status of lexical strata in linguistics. Research report: Controversies and some new results.

In Shigeru Miyagawa and Mamoru Saito, eds. 2009. Handbook of Japanese Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 84-106. Click for abstract and pdf ms.