A Typology of Spreading, Insertion and Deletion or What You Weren't Told About Raddoppiamento Sintattico in Italian

[tre kkaoni] ‘three dogs’RS is one of the most discussed topics within Italian phonology, with the first descriptionand treatment of the phenomenon dating back nearly 500 years. Theoretical analyses of RSsince the 1970s, of whatever kind, seem to suggest that the facts of RS are clear and easyboth to state and to analyze. Yet closer inspection shows RS not to occur in the mannerclaimed or predicted by these accounts. The aim of this paper is to highlight the empiricalinadequacy of existing approaches to RS by illustrating the complex patterns that occur inRS environments.In section 1 of this paper we provide a brief description of RS. In section 2 we present asummarized description of the two main theoretical approaches to the analysis of RS. Thethird part of this paper examines other processes that occur in RS contexts, which functionto block the appearance of RS. These facts have for the most part been long reported indescriptive sources on Italian phonology, but have been consistently ignored in theoreticalaccounts of RS. Their existence, however, is critical since they invalidate existing analysesof RS. Finally, in section 4 we make suggestions as to what needs to be included in anytheoretical analysis of RS, and to the kind of theoretical approach that is most appropriatefor the range of variation we report as occurring in RS environments.