Chilean s-deletion and aspiration: against a Stratal OT account

Abstract

In Chilean Spanish (Bros̀ 2018, 2019), s-aspiration is an opaque process in which [h], coda realization of /s/, surfaces morpheme internally as expected, but it overapplies in word-fi-nal prevocalic position; in absolute word-final position and in word-final preconsonantal position, deletion takes place instead. Bros̀ argues that a Stratal Optimality Theory (OT) account is neces-sary to explain the data. This paper contends that a simpler, non-serial account of the Chilean data is possible and preferable to a Stratal OT one, due to greater simplicity and strict parallelism, which is more closely aligned with the spirit of OT. Although the verdict is out on whether some degree of serialism is unavoidable in OT, the analysis presented shows that the Chilean data do not offer evidence in favor of a Stratal OT account, as a parallel explanation is possible. The proposed analy-sis contributes to our understanding of the Chilean data, to our knowledge of aspiration and other opaque phenomena in Spanish, and to the debate on parallelism in OT.