Weak prepositions in Tortosan Catalan

Clua, Esteve

Weak prepositions in Tortosan Catalan

Citation

Clua, Esteve. Weak prepositions in Tortosan Catalan : alternation of prepositions, allomorphy or phonological process. Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics. 1996;5(1):29-66

Abstract

In this paper, starting from a brief analysis of weak prepositions in Tortosan. I try to show that the preposition a is the only one appearing in adjunct and indirect object PPs. This forces us to account for the form Can] which this preposition takes in certain contexts: specifically when it is followed by a vowel initial determiner or pronoun. After considering the alternative of accounting for the relation between the preposition a and the form [an] either in terms of prepositional allomorphy or in terms of epenthesis of the coronal nasal, I have chosen the latter option, since it allows us to explain similar processes affecting other prepositions (contra 'against', cap a 'towards' and per a 'for') and the privative prefix a. Optima1 syllabification (CV syllable), which is a preferred but not obligatory condition in Catalan, would be, in its formulation as the Onset Principle, the trigger for this process of consonantic epenthesis, which essentially affects the domain [clitic+word] when the former is a determiner.