To the future and back: New aspects of Modern Hebrew imperative truncation
Noam Faust & Si Berrebi
(reviewers: Sabine Arndt-Lappe, Iris Berent)
Abstract: The new imperative in Modern Hebrew was first described in detail by Bolozky (1979), and then formalized as a synchronic phonologically-governed process of truncation by Bat-El (2002). The present paper begins by proposing language-internal and cross-linguistic motivations for the (re-)emergence of this process. It then breaks Bat El’s analysis into its two main components, arguing in
favor of synchronic correspondence between future and imperative forms on the one hand, and against the view that surface “partial” and “full” truncation are both the result of the same process. In support of the synchronic status of the truncation process as deriving from the future form, an elicitation experiment reveals the existence of otherwise inexplicable illicit initial clusters. The results are further interpreted as exhibiting the emergence of universal tendencies, as not all clusters are equally bad.
Faust, Noam & Berrebi, Si. 2022. “To the future and back: New aspects of Modern Hebrew imperative truncation”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 4, 293-328.