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Spanish Plural Formation: Apocope or Epenthesis?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Mario Saltarelli
Mario Saltarelli*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Abstract

This paper presents and motivates a novel ‘epenthesis’ theory of Spanish plural formation as opposed to a recently proposed ‘apocope’ theory. Whereas the apocope theory provides a lexical explanation adding to the complexity of the lexicon and adds a rule, the epenthesis theory provides a phonetic explanation of the phenomenon by generalizing the independently needed rule of prothesis without adding any new rules to the grammar. Simplicity considerations appear to support the epenthesis solution, synchronically as well as diachronically.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 1970 , pp. 89 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 by Linguistic Society of America

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