Arau lexikoen eta lexiko-ostekoen ezberdintasunaz: bokalen asimilazioa Lekeitioko euskaran

Resumen

In this paper we explore a phenomenon of vowel assimilation in the Basque dialect spoken in Lekeitio. In fast or relaxed speech, an initial [-round] vowel of a determiner may optionally assimilate in all its features to the final vowel of a nominal stem, and an initial vowel of an inflected auxiliary may also optionally assimilate to the final vowel of a lexical verb (e.g., /buru + a/ - [burua]/[buruu] D; ikasi eban - [ikasi eban]/[ikasi iban]). The rule responsible for this process unfolds interesting consequences for the theory of Lexical Phonology: on the one hand, the rule could be classified as a postlexical rule, since it operates across syntactic units or heads, but on the other hand, it also shows properties of lexical rules, since it applies in domains which are determined morphologically. The rule cannot be classified as a P1 rule either (i.e., a postlexical rule with properties oflexical rules, cf. Kaisse 1985), since it is sensitive to intonational boundaries, and this is a characteristic of P2 rules (i.e., postlexical rules applying at a very late stage in the derivation). This suggests that the basic distinction between lexical and postlexical rules of classical Lexical Phonology is substantially flawed, and that morphological information about boundaries and grammatical categories is not erased after concatenation, but rather remains available at all levels.