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French Linking Phenomena: A Natural Generative Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Jurgen Klausenburger
Jurgen Klausenburger*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Abstract

This paper maintains that some of the historical rules of consonant deletion, vowel deletion, nasalization, and initial h-deletion—all recapitulated synchronically within the transformational generative accounts of French linking—have undergone morphologization in the form of inversion, and that h-aspiré words have been assigned the feature [– vowel]. This revision is supported by substantive evidence from colloquial trends, which can only be explained by the loss of consonantal epenthesis, vocalic epenthesis, denasalization, and the integration of h-words into the vowel-initial category. It is demonstrated that the extant analysis fails in dealing with the dynamics of change for two reasons: (1) all rules are phonological, with no expectation of loss; and (2) even if rules are lost, incorrect predictions would be made.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 21 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 by Linguistic Society of America

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