Blocking of English Auxiliary Reduction - Where and Why

This paper explores where and why auxiliary reduction is blocked. Blocking of English auxiliary reduction can be explained not in terms of a strict syntactic process, but in terms of a phonological process. Auxiliary reduction occurs optionally because function words like auxiliaries are to be minimized, expecially in speech. However, there are some cases where auxiliary reduction is blocked. When the auxiliary is emphasized with stress, it does not permit auxiliary reduction. Here, I propose that when the auxiliary becomes lengthened, auxiliary reduction is blocked. This is the case where the prosodic boundary falls after the auxiliary. Speakers mark boundaries with the lengthening of pre-boundary words. Both segmental lengthening and pausing accompany prosodic boundaries in speech. Function words like auxiliaries are lengthened at the prosodic boundary and this lengthening does not allow the reduction of auxiliaries. If reduction is to minimize the function words, the lengthening of the auxiliaries will be incompatible with reduction. It seems that the auxiliary reduction is syntactically determined because it is blocked if the constituent immediately following the auxiliary has been either moved or deleted. However, this blocking of auxiliary reduction takes place not because of movement or deletion itself, but because of the lengthening of the auxiliary at the prosodic boundary immediately before the movement or deletion sites. Lengthening signals that it is followed by prosodic boundary. This also accounts for why the auxiliary reduction does not occur at the sentence final position.