Word accent and mapping rules in Yurakaré

Abstract

This paper looks in detail at stress assignment in the Bolivian isolate language Yurakaré, one of the few processes in the language that require the phonological-word (p-word) as its domain of application. In terms of stress assignment, the p-word in Yurakaré interacts not only with the morphological component, but also with the syntactic component. Moreover, morphological interference with the prosodic component seems to start below the level of the p-word. I argue that these complex, conditional mappings can be thought of as either structurally conditioned diachronic remnants of grammaticalized items or as functionally motivated peculiarities.