The partitive A: On uses of the Finnish partitive subject in transitive clauses Tuomas Huumo 16 S... more The partitive A: On uses of the Finnish partitive subject in transitive clauses Tuomas Huumo 16 Some like it transitive: Remarks on verbs of liking and the like in the Saami languages Seppo Kittilä & Jussi Ylikoski 17 The emergence of differential case marking Sander Lestrade 18 Reassessing scale effects on differential case marking: Methodological, conceptual and theoretical issues in the quest for a universal Karsten Schmidtke-Bode & Natalia Levshina Indexes ii Preface Most of the 18 papers in this volume were presented at the workshop The Diachronic Typology of Differential Argument Marking, held at the
This article examines the syllable structure in Fròʔò, a dialect of Tagbana spoken in Côte d'Ivoi... more This article examines the syllable structure in Fròʔò, a dialect of Tagbana spoken in Côte d'Ivoire. In our analysis, the underlying syllable structure in Fròʔò is limited to C(C)V and V. Other surface syllable shapes, such as CVC, are the result of synchronic morphophonological processes. These processes include the formation of surface complex onsets through vowel deletion, the simplification of underlying complex onsets through liquid deletion, and the merger of bisyllabic CVCV sequences into monosyllables (CVC and CV). Evidence of these phonological process can also be found in loanwords, where syllable repairs take place. 1 Syllable structure and loanword adaptation in Fròʔò Table 3: Overview of the nominal classes of Fròʔò and their class markers Class markers (CM) Examples of nouns of each class Class 1 (sg. of gender 1) hō−lō wótìɔ1 several CM, including ∅ elephant−cm1 python Class 2 (pl. of gender 1) hō−bēlē wótìɔ−hélé CM: [-hele], [-bele],-lV elephants−cm2 pythons−cm2 Class 3 (sg. of gender 2) lāː−lā kpē−lē CM: [-lV] belly−cm3 knife−cm3 Class 4 (pl. of gender 2) lā−ʔālā kpē−gēlē CM: [-ʔVlV,-gele] bellies−cm4 knives−cm4 Class 5 (sg. of gender 3) jē−gē āfɔ−ŋɔC M: [-gV]/[-ŋV]/[-ʔV] or ∅ month−cm5 newthing−cm5 Class 6 (pl. of gender 3) jēː−rē āfɔ:−rɔC M: [-rV] months−cm6 newthings−cm6 Class 7 (sg. of gender 4) ɲũ−mũ wɛ−bɛC M: [-mV] water−cm7 foliage−cm7 (4) [a]/[ã] in word-initial position a. ā.jlē-ʔè mirror-cm5 'mirror' b. ā.wrē-ʔē something itchy-cm5 'something itchy' c. à.plè3 'shade' d. ã.gù1 'traditional dance' e. ã.gō-lò mount-cm3 'mount' Word-medially, all vowels can be a nucleus, see two examples in (5), each of which contains a CM consisting only of a vowel. (5) Vowel at hiatus position a. pì-ɔc hild-cm1 'child' b. kā.fū-ō sweat-cm5 'sweat' 5 Yranahan Traoré & Caroline Féry Word-initially, before all vowels other than [a], [h] or another consonant is needed; see (6) for words starting with [h]. In loanwords starting with a vowel, [h] is inserted word-initially, see §5. (6) [h] initial words a. hēːrē 'to press' b. hɔʔɔ' to cook' c. hòʔó 'to stoop' d. hɛ̰ 'where' e. hí-ʔí feather-cm5 'feather' f. hú-ʔú thorn-cm5 'thorn' Syllables consisting of a nasal only are the subject of §2.4 2.2 CV syllable: onset + nucleus All consonants can occupy the word-initial onset position except for the glottal stop [ʔ] and [r], both of which do not occur in this position. In (7), monosyllabic words are used for illustration. (7) a. pũ1 'dog' b. bā7 'this' c. tō1 'father' d. díː 'so, that' e. cã' to fall' f. ɉɛ' to wake up' g. kā 'to break' h. gũ1 'tortoise' i. kpē 'to take' j. gbò1 'gnat' k. fã' to build' l. sɛ' produce' m. hɛ' where' n. mĩ' I, me' o. nũ̀1 'ox' p. ɲĩ 'to fill' q. ŋã' this one' r. jō 'to say' s. wī 'him' 6 1 Syllable structure and loanword adaptation in Fròʔò Vowel lengthening is triggered by a following liquid, [r] or [l], as shown in (8). Liquids at the beginning of word final syllables often are the initial consonant of a class marker, but not always. The examples in (8) have a heteromorphemic liquid, except for (8f), in which the last syllable is part of the lexical root. (8) a. lōː-rō mango-cm6 'mangoes' b. kāː-lā problem-cm3' 'problem' c. pĩː-rĩt am-tam-cm6 'tam-tams' d. pũː-lũd og-cm2 'dogs' e. pìː-lì child-cm2 'children' f. ɉàː.rà1 'lion' Not all vowels lengthen before a liquid, as shown in (9). This happens when the vowel follows [ʔ]. In this case, it is deleted or pronounced as a short and weak vowel (see §3.2 for vowel deletion). Thus, the sequence [ʔVrV] blocks lengthening of the vowel following [r]. (9) a. fīʔī.rí 'to frighten' b. híʔí.rí 'to shiver' c. ɲɔʔɔ.rɔ' to move' d. hùʔù.rú 'to spin' Words initial complex onsets are illustrated in (11). (11) Complex word-initial onsets i. [pl]: plɔ.ʔɔb amboo-cm5 'bamboo' ii. [pr]: prò6 'chip' iii. [bl]: blɔ' plowed' iv. [br]: bré.ʔé 'to boil' v. [tr]: trá.ʔá 'to stick up' vi. [dr]: drè.ʔè shift-cm5 'shirt' vii. [cl]: clɛ.mũẁ oman-cm7 'womanhood' viii. [cr]: crɛ.ʔɛ' to expand' ix. [ɉl]: ɉlì.ʔí 'wise' x. [ɉr]: ɉrɛ.ʔɛ' to fly' xi. [kl]: klã.ʔãs eat-cm5 'seat' xii. [kr]: krɔ.ʔɔ car-cm5 'car' xiii. [km]: kmɔ' to beat' xiv. [gm]: gmɔ' beaten' xv. [gl]: glē.ʔè tamis-cm5 'tamise' xvi. [gr]: grā̰ 'dirty' 8 1 Syllable structure and loanword adaptation in Fròʔò xvii. [kpl]: kplɛ.ʔɛf ormer-cm5 'former' xviii. [kpr]: kprā.ʔā sugar cane-cm5 'sugar cane' xix. [gbl]: gblɛːr 'beginning' xx. [gbr]: gbrè.ʔè 'unripe' xxi. [fl]: flĩ.ʔĩ furuncle-cm5 'furuncle' xxii. [fr]: frɔ.ʔɔ' to scrub' xxiii. [sr]: srɛ.ʔɛṕ rayer-cm5 'prayer' xxiv. [hl]: hlã-ʔãl eg-cm5 'leg' xxv. [hr]: hrō6 meal 'meals' xxvi. [ml]: mlã-ʔãfi ght-cm5 'fight' xxvii. [mr]: mrũ̀.ʔũc orosol-cm5 'corosol' xxviii. [nr]: nrɛr oot-cm6 'roots' xxix. [ɲl] ɲlɔ.ʔɔ' to write' xxx. [ɲr]: ɲrã.ʔã' to hook' xxxi. [ŋl]: ŋlɔ-ʔɔd ream-cm5 'dream' xxxii. [ŋr]: ŋrɔ.ʔɔ 'to push' xxxiii. [wl]: wlɛ-ʔɛd ay-cm5 xxxiv. [wr]: wrē.ʔē 'short' xxxv. [jl]: jlɛ.mɛc lean-cm7 'cleanliness' xxxvi. [jr]: jrā.ʔā thing-cm5 'thing' Only [k] and [g] can form an initial complex onset with [m], but the segment clusters [km] and [gm] are only attested in a few words. Herault & Mlanhoro (1973) analyze them as the nasal counterparts of [kp] and [gb] when the following vowel is nasal, see examples in (12). In other words, in their analysis [km] and [gm] are allophones of underlying /kp/ and /gb/. An alternative explanation is that the vowel following [km] and [gm] is subject to nasal harmony. That explains why the following vowel is always nasal. In fact, [kp] and [gb] can be followed by a nasal vowel, and this distributional fact speaks against the allophonic nature of [km] and [gm], see the examples in (12). Word-medial complex onsets are listed in (14). 9 Yranahan Traoré & Caroline Féry (12) a. kmɔ 'to hit' b. kmã-ʔã' nice' c. kmɔ.ʔɔ-lɔfi replace-cm3 'fireplace' d. lā.gmã.mũb elly-kind-cm7 'kindness' (13) a. kpɛ-mũd aylight-cm7 'daylight' b. kpãdàː-là funeral yard-cm3 'funeral yard' c. lāgbã-mũ anger-cm7 'anger' (14) Word-medial complex onsets i. [pl]: tī.plɔ-ʔɔḡ round-cm5 'ground' ii. [pr]: tì.prì-ʔì fresh-cm5 'freshness' iii. [bl]: à.blò-ʔò peanut-cm5 'peanut' iv. [br]: à.brà.ʔà 'to bargain' v. [tr]: kpà.trō-ʔō whip-cm5 'whip' vi. [dr]: kā.fĩ.n.drī-ʔī umbilical cord-cm5 'umbilical cord' vii. [cl]: kā.clē-ʔē bone-cm5 'bone' viii. [ɉl]: n.ɉlé.ʔè wall-cm5 'wall' ix. [ɉr]: kɔ.ɉrɛ.lɛḿ angoose-cm3 'mangoose' x. [kl]: tì.klɔ̰ .ʔɔ̰ 'long' xi. [kr]: kā.krā.ʔ junk-cm5 'junk' xii. [km]: a.kmɔː-rɔs trike-cm6 'the strikes' xiii. [gm]: la.gmã-m(ũ̀) belly-kind-cm7 'kindness' xiv. [gl]: hã.glā.ʔà bow-cm5 'bow' 10 1 Syllable structure and loanword adaptation in Fròʔò xv. [gr]: bà.grà-ʔà hoe-cm5 'hoe' xvi. [gbl]: kã.gblò-ʔò cudgel-cm5 'cudgel' xvii. [gbr] ā.gbrē.ʔē unripe-cm5 'unripe' xviii. [fl]: tū.flɛ-ʔɛw ind-cm5
The phrasal phonology of Chichewa is one of the most well-known aspects of the language, thanks t... more The phrasal phonology of Chichewa is one of the most well-known aspects of the language, thanks to Kanerva’s (1990) widely cited dissertation. The first section of this chapter briefly reviews the phonological evidence for prosodic phrasing: namely, penultimate vowel lengthening and the tonal processes introduced in Chapter 6. The next section reviews the range of data (both simplex and complex sentences) illustrating prosodic phrasing found in the work of Kanerva and follow-up studies. This is followed by a critical evaluation of three theoretical approaches accounting for the phrasing. The question of whether or not focus conditions prosodic phrasing in Chichewa, as Kanerva (1990) claims, is reviewed in the light of follow-up studies of focus prosody in the language. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the contribution of studies of Chichewa prosodic phrasing to theoretical and typological issues in the phonology–syntax–focus interface.
Prosodic Morphology
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
Studies of Bantu languages like Chichewa have contributed to two core areas of prosodic morpholog... more Studies of Bantu languages like Chichewa have contributed to two core areas of prosodic morphology: minimality and reduplication. The first section of this chapter provides evidence for a disyllabic minimality constraint on Prosodic Words in Chichewa. The next sections turn to nominal and verbal reduplication. The reduplication patterns are illustrated in detail. As they have received some attention in the theoretical literature, issues raised by the reduplication patterns are reviewed, including a discussion of the reduplicative tone patterns. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the disyllabic syndrome in Chichewa.
Grammatical Tone Patterns of Negative and Relative Verbs
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
This chapter takes up two additional parameters that condition grammatical tone in Chichewa, name... more This chapter takes up two additional parameters that condition grammatical tone in Chichewa, namely: negative polarity and relative clause type. There are fewer grammatical tone patterns for negative and relative verbs, compared to affirmative main clause verbs. The inflections that grouped together for the tone patterns discussed in Chapter 7 do not always group together for the corresponding negative and relative paradigms. The two core sections of the chapter illustrate in detail the tone patterns for negative and relative verbs. The concluding section of the chapter takes up the often neglected issue of where grammatical tone patterns are represented in the grammar.
Grammatical Sketch
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
This chapter introduces the phoneme inventory and the transcription system used in the book. It t... more This chapter introduces the phoneme inventory and the transcription system used in the book. It then goes on to provide sufficient introductory information on the morphology and syntax (i.e. structure of words and phrases, basic agreement patterns) to follow the discussion of the phonological processes applying at the lexical and phrasal levels which are presented in the remaining chapters of the book.
Segmental Phonology: Vowels
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
This chapter begins with a discussion of the Chichewa vowel phoneme inventory and its relation to... more This chapter begins with a discussion of the Chichewa vowel phoneme inventory and its relation to the Proto-Bantu vowel inventory. The distribution of vowels in different morphological and phonological positions in the word is taken up next. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of Bantu vowel height harmony (VHH), a process that conditions the possible vowel combinations in stems in Chichewa as in many Bantu languages. Data from a range of morphological and phonological contexts is provided to show that vowel harmony patterns in Chichewa fit Hyman’s (1999b) characterization of “canonical” Bantu VHH. Accounting for vowel harmony—and in particular Bantu VHH—has played an important role in the development of phonological theories of the representation and assimilation of vocalic properties from the 1980s to the present (Hyman 2003d). For this reason, the chapter takes up three different theoretical approaches to Bantu VHH in some detail.
The Phonology of Chichewa
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
Bantu languages have played and continue to play an important role as a source of data illustrati... more Bantu languages have played and continue to play an important role as a source of data illustrating core phonological processes—vowel harmony, nasal place assimilation, postnasal laryngeal alternations, tonal phenomena such as high tone spread and the OCP, prosodic morphology, and the phonology–syntax interface. Chichewa, in particular, has been a key language in the development of theoretical approaches to these phonological phenomena. This book provides thorough descriptive coverage, presented in a clear, atheoretical manner, of the full range of phonological phenomena of Chichewa. Less well-studied topics—such as positional asymmetries in the distribution of segments, the phonetics of tone, and intonation—are also included. The book surveys, where relevant, important recent theoretical approaches to phonological problems—such as vowel harmony, the phonology–syntax interface, focus prosody, and reduplication—where Chichewa data is routinely referred to in the theoretical literatur...
Explaining the role of the morphological continuum in Bantu spirantisation
Africana Linguistica, 2007
J. Downing Laura. Explaining the role of the morphological continuum in Bantu spirantisation. In:... more J. Downing Laura. Explaining the role of the morphological continuum in Bantu spirantisation. In: Africana Linguistica 13, 2007. pp. 53-78
The Role of Phonology in Defining Canonical Form in MBT
Canonical Forms in Prosodic Morphology, 2006
Sharon Inkelas and Cheryl Zoll, Reduplication: Doubling in Morphology
Goldsmith's (1995) Handbook of phonological theory provided an influential overview of the field ... more Goldsmith's (1995) Handbook of phonological theory provided an influential overview of the field in the mid-90s, earning a well-deserved place on the shelf of practising phonologists. The volume under review is not the first to attempt to update this classic work. Two other recent handbooks of comparable length and scope are the second edition of Goldsmith (Goldsmith et al. 2011), and de Lacy's (2007) well-received Cambridge handbook of phonology. Besides evaluating how well the current work meets the general expectations that readers have for a handbook, this review must necessarily also address the inevitable questions : why yet another handbook of phonology just now ? ; how does this volume distinguish itself from its competitors ? ; does this work fill a gap that is not met by the other handbooks ? The names of the editors and authors provide the first clue to what makes this volume distinctive. Almost all contributors work and/or received their PhDs in Europe, whereas North American phonologists dominate the other handbooks. The European perspective is felt in several of the core chapters in the second and longest part of the volume, ' Research issues ', which discuss certain approaches-such as Element Theory, Government Phonology and CV theory-that tend to be less well known in North America. The chapter by Botma, Kula & Nasukawa on ' Features' has a comprehensive discussion of the phonetic motivation for different feature theories in early generative phonology, followed by a clear introduction to Element Theory. One of the distinctive properties of Element Theory is that the same feature can have different phonetic realisations, depending on the featural configuration (in particular, which other feature is the head of the configuration). The advantages of representing voicing and nasality with a single feature are exemplified with a detailed analysis of alternations involving nasal prefixes in Zoque. Péter Szigetvári's chapter on ' Syllables ' follows a critical historical survey of motivations for syllable structure with an exceptionally clear introduction to CV theory, a theory which essentially dispenses with the syllable as a constituent. As someone who was not trained in this approach, I read the chapter with scepticism. However, by the end of it I felt I had an appreciative understanding of how strict CV licensing can account for classic problems like restrictions on consonant and vowel clusters which are usually considered motivations for syllable structure. Both this chapter and the one on features will be read with interest by phonologists wishing to understand the highlighted theories better. They will surely be recommended to students as useful introductory chapters by phonologists working in the theories presented. However, as the focus in these chapters is on the particular theories under discussion, they are not intended to provide a useful guide to current research and issues in other frameworks.
Tone (non-) transfer in Bantu verbal reduplication
Proceedings of the International Workshop on the …, 2001
... yesterday) (f) m-[bib-ílé I planted (yesterday) X carelessly, here and there (a&#... more ... yesterday) (f) m-[bib-ílé I planted (yesterday) X carelessly, here and there (a') ku-[lima-lima (b') ku-[bala-bala (c') ku-[bíbá-biba (d') ku-[káláanga-kalaanga (e') m-[bazile-bazílé (f') m-[bibile-bibílé In KiNande, up to two High tones ...
Phonological alternations in homorganic nasal-stop sequences provide a continuing topic of invest... more Phonological alternations in homorganic nasal-stop sequences provide a continuing topic of investigation for phonologists and phoneticians alike. Surveys like Herbert (1986), Rosenthal (1989), Steriade (1993) and Hyman (2001) demonstrate that cross-linguistically the most common process is for the postnasal stop to become voiced, as captured by Pater's (1999) markedness constraint *NT. However, as observed since Hyman (2001), *NT alone does not account for all postnasal patterns of laryngeal alternation. In this paper, we focus on three problematic patterns. First, in some languages with a two-way laryngeal contrast, voiceless stops are aspirated postnasally, i.e. the contrast between NT and ND is enhanced, not neutralized. Second, in some languages with a three-way laryngeal contrast, the voicing contrast is maintained postnasally, while the aspiration contrast neutralizes in favour of aspiration. Third, in other languages with a three-way laryngeal contrast we find the opposite postnasal aspiration neutralization: aspiration is lost. We argue that an analysis based on perceptual cues provides the best account for this range of alternations. It demonstrates the crucial role of perceptual cues and laryngeal contrasts in a particular language while fitting the range of patterns into an Optimality Theoretic factorial typology that covers a wider range of postnasal laryngeal alternations than previous analyses.
The papers in this volume were originally presented at the Bantu Relative Clause workshop held in... more The papers in this volume were originally presented at the Bantu Relative Clause workshop held in Paris on 8-9 January 2010, which was organized by the French-German cooperative project on the Phonology/Syntax Interface in Bantu Languages (BANTU PSYN). This project, which is funded by the ANR and the DFG, comprises three research teams, based in Berlin, Paris and Lyon. The Berlin team, at the ZAS, is: Laura Downing (project leader) and Kristina Riedel (post-doc). The Paris team, at the Laboratoire de phonétique et phonologie (LPP; UMR 7018), is: Annie Rialland (project leader), Cédric Patin (Maître de Conférences, STL, Université Lille 3), Jean-Marc Beltzung (post-doc), Martial Embanga Aborobongui (doctoral student). The Lyon team, at the Dynamique du Langage (UMR 5596) is: Gérard Philippson (project leader) and Sophie Manus (Maître de Conférences, Université Lyon 2). These three research teams bring together the range of theoretical expertise necessary to investigate the phonology-syntax interface: intonation (Patin, Rialland), tonal phonology (Aborobongui, Downing, Manus, Patin, Philippson, Rialland), phonology-syntax interface (Downing, Patin) and formal syntax (Riedel). They also bring together a range of Bantu language expertise: Western Bantu (Aboronbongui, Rialland), * We would like to thank Jean-Marc Beltzung and Sophie Manus for help reviewing papers for the volume. We are grateful to Jean-Marc Beltzung and Olena Gainulina for indispensable formatting assistance.
The phonetic motivation for the synchronic and diachronic development of post-nasal voicing (*NT ... more The phonetic motivation for the synchronic and diachronic development of post-nasal voicing (*NT > ND) is well understood. Less well understood is the phonetic motivation for other common synchronic and diachronic developments from *NT, widely attested in Bantu languages, such as aspiration of the voiceless plosive and subsequent loss of either the nasal or the plosive portion of the sequence: *NT > NTh > Th, Nh. In this paper we first review the existing (scarce) phonetic literature on these developments. Then we present the results of a phonetic study of NC sequences in Tumbuka, a Bantu language where NT > NTh, as a way of exploring how the acoustic and perceptual properties of NTh sequences could motivate the development, found in other Bantu languages, of Th or Nɦ from NTh. We conclude by proposing that a perceptual cue approach, rather than a gestural or other articulatory approach, provides the most persuasive phonetic account, not only of the motivation for post-nasal aspiration of voiceless stops, but also for the instability of nasals and of voiceless stops in the NTh context which leads to other sound changes.
The Bantu language Tumbuka, spoken in Malawi and Zambia, has the vowel phonemes /i, e, a, o, u/ b... more The Bantu language Tumbuka, spoken in Malawi and Zambia, has the vowel phonemes /i, e, a, o, u/ but no phonemic contrast in vowel length. In the present study we measured the duration of vowels before homorganic nasal-obstruent sequences (NC) and compared them to the duration of vowels before single obstruents for four speakers of Tumbuka. With this data, we tested whether there is acoustic support for the existence of a phonological process of pre-NC lengthening, as reported for many other Bantu languages. Our results provide no support for such an interpretation in Tumbuka: pre-NC vowels were only 10 ms longer than pre-obstruent vowels, and though this difference was statistically significant, it is below the just noticeable difference for duration of 25 ms and therefore most likely not perceivable. We conclude that the observed pre-NC lengthening in Tumbuka is a purely co-articulatory, phonetic process.
The ATR vowel harmony patterns observed in Kinande have received persistent attention for their c... more The ATR vowel harmony patterns observed in Kinande have received persistent attention for their combination of stem control and dominance, as well as less familiar phenomena such as dominance reversal and crossword harmony. This paper provides a Syntagmatic Correspondence analysis of the Kinande vowel harmony system and demonstrates that it straightforwardly accounts for the intricate interaction of featural, directional and morpho-prosodic domain restrictions that define the occurring harmony patterns. The analysis obviates an appeal to dominance reversal, and crossword harmony is shown to be phonological, not phonetic (contra Archangeli & Pulleyblank 2002; Kaisse 2019), yielding to a non-stratal analysis in the approach adopted. The analysis thus provides additional evidence for incorporating directionality into the formalization of Syntagmatic Correspondence constraints and for morpho-prosodic domain limitations on these and other OT constraints.
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