Phonological change and grammaticalization in HPSG: The case of French final consonants

Abstract

This paper explores the use of HPSG for modeling historical phonological change and grammaticalization, focusing on the evolution of the pronunciation of word-final consonants in Modern French. The diachronic evidence is presented in detail, and interpreted as two main transitions, first from Old French to Middle French, then from Middle French to the modern language. The data show how the loss of final consonants, originally a phonological development in Middle French, gave rise to the grammaticalized external sandhi phenomenon known as consonant liaison in modern French. The stages of development are analyzed formally as a succession of HPSG lexical schemas in which phonological representations are determined by reference to the immediately following phonological context.