A prosodic analysis of the Head Final Filter effects and beyond

Abstract The orders of noun (N) and adjective modified by an adpositional phrase (A PP) in the world’s languages have been explained by the Head Final Filter (HFF) ( Williams 1982 ) and the Final-over-Final Constraint (FOFC) ( Biberauer et al. 2014 , Sheehan 2017 ). Alexeyenko & Zeijlstra (2021) argue that the HFF can be violated in languages with rich agreement morphology, and propose the Phrase Continuity Requirement (PCR). However, there are some languages that have rich morphology but obey the HFF. As an alternative approach to the orders of N, A and PP, we generalize the HFF and the FOFC into a prosodic constraint, the Minimal Prosodic Boundaries constraint (MPB), which requires that a constituent be externalized with minimal boundaries between its sub-constituents. The variation in possible orders is correctly predicted by an additional rule, the Mapping of Left Bracket Sequence (MLBS), and by language-specific stress patterns. We further argue that our prosodic account can also explain the counterexamples to the HFF and the FOFC.