Benjamin Storme
(Reviewers: Timothée Premat and anonymous reviewer)
Abstract : One key hypothesis of Optimality Theory is that phonological processes are motivated by phonotactic constraints. This hypothesis has been challenged by Morin (2005) using data from French liaison that are problematic for the analysis of this phenomenon as motivated by an anti-hiatus phonotactic constraint. Morin proposed instead a usage-based account à la Bybee (1999) that does away with phonotactic constraints all together. This paper uses evidence from lexical statistics to show that hiatus avoidance does play a role in liaison alternations. The paper further shows that phonotactics is not the only motivation for liaison alternations and argues that morphophonological constraints are also at play.
Storme, Benjamin. 2024. “French liaison and hiatus avoidance”. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 6, 1-30.