RESUMEN
We consider two asymmetries reported in the literature on word prosodic systems: the tendency to allow more prosodic contrast in nouns than in verbs and the tendency to avoid stress on functional material. We focus on the interaction between these two tendencies and propose a formal mechanism to handle this interaction couched in Optimality Theory. In a case study on a group of standard Serbo-Croatian varieties that have predictable stress in verbs but contrastive stress in nouns, we develop an analysis of predictable and morphologically conditioned stress assignment. Our analysis features a family of constraints militating against stress on non-lexical material on three different levels: stress on inflection proper (*Infl-Stress-1), stress on non-lexical material in the locality domain of inflection (*Infl-Stress-2), and stress on non-lexical material altogether (*Infl-Stress-3). Analyzing a class of prosodically exceptional denominal and borrowed verbs, we show that lexical-category effects exist between and within categories: denominal verbs allow exceptional preservation of nominal stress, which leads to additional prosodic contrast in this class of verbs. Finally, we explore the option of subsuming exceptionally contrast-preserving borrowed verbs under denominal verbs, offering arguments in favor of the hotly debated view from the literature that verbs are universally borrowed as denominal.
RESUMEN
Nonlocal primordial non-Gaussianity (NLPNG) is a smoking gun of interactions in single-field inflationary models and can be written as a combination of the equilateral and orthogonal templates. We present the first constraints on these from the redshift-space galaxy power spectra and bispectra of the BOSS data. These are the first such measurements independent of the cosmic microwave background fluctuations. We perform a consistent analysis that includes all necessary nonlinear corrections generated by NLPNG and vary all relevant cosmological and nuisance parameters in a global fit to the data. Our conservative analysis yields joint limits on the amplitudes of the equilateral and orthogonal shapes, f_{NL}^{equil}=940±600 and f_{NL}^{ortho}=-170±170 (both at 68% CL). These can be used to derive constraints on coefficients of the effective single-field inflationary Lagrangian; in particular, we find that the sound speed of inflaton fluctuations has the bound c_{s}≥0.013 at 95% CL. Fixing the quadratic galaxy bias and cosmological parameters, the constraints can be tightened to f_{NL}^{equil}=260±300 and f_{NL}^{ortho}=-23±120 (68% CL).
RESUMEN
The simplest inflationary model V=1/2m(2)Ï(2) represents the benchmark for future constraints. For a quadratic potential, the quantity (n(s)-1)+r/4+11(n(s)-1)(2)/24 vanishes (up to corrections which are cubic in slow roll) and can be used to parametrize small deviations from the minimal scenario. Future constraints on this quantity will be able to distinguish a quadratic potential from a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson with fâ²30M(pl) and set limits on the deviation from unity of the speed of sound |c(s)-1|â²3×10(-2) (corresponding to an energy scale Λâ³2×10(16) GeV) and on the contribution of a second field to perturbations (â²6×10(-2)). The limiting factor for these bounds will be the uncertainty on the spectral index. The error on the number of e-folds will be ΔN≃0.4, corresponding to an error on the reheating temperature ΔT(rh)/T(rh)≃1.2. We comment on the relevance of non-Gaussianity after BICEP2 results.