ABSTRACT
A common, if informal, observation is that languages employ either Stray Erasure or Stray Epenthesis to deal with material left over from syllabification. Korean and Attic Greek eliminate unsyllabified segments by Stray Erasure, while in parallel circumstances Chukchee and Cairene Arabic insert a vowel by Stray Epenthesis to save unsyllabified segments. Thus, both Stray Erasure and Stray Epenthesis result in representations, which no longer contain stray segments. The author compares the two theories of epenthesis with respect to epenthesis processes in Ponapean, Japanese and Axininca Campa, and shows that the syllable-mapping theory avoids redundancies and is more desirable in various respects. In the course of the discussion, she considers some consequences of the Obligatory Contour Principle and of Tier Conflation for syllabification. The syllable-mapping theory of epenthesis presupposes the existence in the grammar of a syllable template to which elements can be associated. The chapter shows that skeletal operations independent of syllable structure lead to redundancy in various respects.
