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


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.