Element Iteration Respecification Unstressed Word-Final [u] in Portuguese

Abstract

This study assumes that the internal structure of vowels consists of the combination of elements which can be iterated. According to previous research, it is also assumed that element iteration in Portuguese provides vowels with inherent weight; word-finally, such vowels are stress-attractors. Notwithstanding, Portuguese has a great amount of words with unstressed final [u] (i.e., a vowel consisting of the iteration of {U}), as it is the case of inflected forms of nouns and adjectives. After analysing diachronic and morphological data, it is proposed that element iteration can have different representations at the lexical and the post-lexical levels. On the basis of this observation, it is proposed that element iteration functions as a weight- and stress-assigner only when lexically specified