On exceptional stress assignment in Latvian: the case of prefixes

Abstract

In this article, we examine some previously understudied exceptions to the generalization that Latvian assigns stress to the left-most syllable in a prosodic word, specifically those that involve prefixation. We will show that these apparent exceptions in stress assignment follow from the internal structural properties of the word and are a result of attaching the prefix outside the domain where stress is assigned, which is up to the first functional head inside the hierarchy. Our treatment combines the syntactic structure of a neoconstructionist approach to word formation with an optimality theory formalization at the phonological level.