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<small>Sehr geehrte Kolleginnen und Kollegen,</small><br>
<font size="-1"><font face="Calibri">im Namen von Prof. Nikolaus
Ritt darf ich Ihnen eine Einladung zum untenstehenden
Gastvortrag übermitteln.<br>
<br>
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,<br>
Maria Valencia</font></font><br>
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<div align="center"><b><i><span style="font-family:Gentium">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></i></b><br>
<b><i><span style="font-family:Gentium"> The return of final
schwa in English<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-align:center"
align="center"><span style="font-family:Gentium">Donka Minkova,
UCLA<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Gentium"></span>The
talk traces a remarkable reversal in the trajectory of schwa in
final unstressed syllables (/-ə/#) in non-monosyllabic words.
The first stage involves ubiquitous loss of the unstressed vowel
at the right word boundary culminating c. 1400-1450. The second
stage initiates an incipient reversal of the loss in a severely
restricted subset of the lexicon. The next phase is a gradual,
and as yet incomplete, reanalysis of the functions of right-edge
schwa. In a macro-perspective, the history of the change plots
as a continuous, but apparently non-repetitive, U-curve. The
abandonment of the phonotactic constraint */-ə/# triggers
changes at all levels: phonology, morphology, prosody,
pragmatics. The account identifies and compares the properties
of final schwa in these areas before and after the middle of the
15<sup>th</sup> c. with a view to its future.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><br>
<b><span style="font-family:Gentium">Institut für Anglistik
(Campus Hof 8), Seminarraum 5 (1. Stock)<br>
Mittwoch, 6. Mai, 16 c.t.</span></b><b><i><span
style="font-family:Gentium"><br>
</span></i></b></p>
<div align="center"><b><i><span style="font-family:Gentium">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Maria VALENCIA CUBEROS, MA
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Universität Wien
Uni-Campus AAKH, Hof 8
Spitalgasse 2-4, A-1090 Wien
Tel.: 0043-1-4277 42420
Fax: 0043-1-4277 42499</pre>
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