Adjuncts at the syntax-prosody interface in nominal structures in Dela

This paper discusses an intriguing syntax-prosody interface phenomenon in Dela, an Austronesian language spoken on Rote Island, eastern Indonesia. Typologically, Dela is an SVO language where the NP’s head-adjunct relation is marked by a light/heavy syllable alternation resulting in C(onsonant) deletion/insertion. Our study contributes to the typological and theoretical research on the nature and function of prosody in grammar. We demonstrate that LFG’s modular model nicely captures the syntax-prosody phenomenon in Dela.