A correspondence between syntactic and prosodic constituency has been observed for many languages, and Malagasy (VOS) is no exception: the predicate and subject each forms its own phonological phrase, marked at its right edge with a rising pitch accent (i.e., phonological phrasing is [VO] [S]). Imperatives, though, exhibit a different pattern: imperative verb heads and their objects are prosodically distinct (i.e., [V] [O] [S]). This pattern is surprising given that imperatives and declaratives have a similar surface word order and no immediately-evident structural differences that would correspond to the observed prosody. This apparent mismatch could be explained as either a) a true syntax-prosody mismatch, where the observed prosody of imperatives is caused by some other prosodic requirement, or b) an incomplete understanding of the syntax of the imperative. In this talk, I will present original prosodic and syntactic data and conclude that the Malagasy imperative adheres to a strict syntax-prosody correspondence if we consider a revised analysis of the syntax where objects raise out of the predicate verb phrase in imperative structures. The talk will end with a short tutorial on incorporating prosodic evidence into your own work.

Location: Royce Hall 362