Kashaya Extrametricality and Formal Symmetry

Abstract

Kager (2012), Martínez-Paricio & Kager (2013), and Martínez-Paricio (2013) propose layered feet to account for a variety of phenomena, including stress windows, mixed binary and ternary alternations, and extrametricality. Although many metrical theories do not accommodate left-edge extrametricality, they use constraints that are almost entirely symmetrical and can therefore capture initial extrametricality in a language like Kashaya (Pomoan: California). Building on their work, however, I argue that the full facts of Kashaya require even more extensive use of the layered, or recursive, foot than in the other languages that they discuss, including recursion over a degenerate foot. To account for these facts formally, I claim that Non-Finality has the counterpart Non-Initiality and that the constraint system is therefore fully symmetrical; and in contrast to many previous formalizations, both are defined in terms of foot structure rather than as avoidance of stress at the edge.