The Morphology-Phonology Connection

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The Place of Level-Ordering in Morphology

Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Place of Morphology in a Grammar (1992), pp. 365-37

Multiple exponence in the Lusoga verb stem

In this paper we address an unusual pattern of multiple exponence in Lusoga, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda, which bears on the questions of whether affix order is reducible to syntactic structure, whether derivation is always ordered before inflection, and what motivates multiple exponence in the first place. In Lusoga, both derivational and inflectional categories may be multiply exponed. The trigger of multiple exponence is the reciprocal suffix, which optionally triggers the doubling both of preceding derivational suffixes and of following inflectional suffixes. In these cases, each of the doubled affixes appear both before (closer to the root) and after the reciprocal. We attribute this pattern to restructuring, arguing that the inherited Bantu stem consisting of a root + suffixes has been reanalyzed as a compound-like structure with two internal constituents, the second headed by the reciprocal morpheme, each potentially undergoing parallel derivation and inflection

Modeling Vowel Quantity Scales in Q Theory

A growing body of research suggests that vowels vary in degree of strength. These strength differences are borne out in the degree to which these segments undergo or trigger phonological processes such as stress assignment or harmony. Traditionally, this variability has been accounted for through binary differences in phonological representations, such as presence or absence of a segment in the underlying representation, presence or absence of a phonological feature, and moraicity or non-moraicity of the relevant segment. While distinctions in underlying status and moraic structure are an effective tool for capturing some of the observed differences in vowel strength, they do not capture all attested differences. In this paper, we offer evidence supporting a four-point strength scale to which faithfulness and markedness constraints can refer. This model allows for strength differences among underlying and inserted vowels, and within monomoraic and bimoraic vowels as well, subject to scalar implications. We argue that Q-Theoretic representations offer the necessary representational tool to capture the full range of vowel strength

Directionality effects via distance-based penalty scaling

In this paper we develop a new proposal for distance-based penalty scaling in Optimality-theoretic analyses, including Harmonic Grammar. We apply this technique to the analysis of two phonological phenomena, both of which have posed challenges to implementation using standard constraint-based methods: directionality effects and bounded domain windows. In the analysis of directionality, we demonstrate how our approach can model challenge directional harmony by applying distance-based penalty scaling in the analysis of Ngore-Kiga sibilant harmony. We then extend our analysis to capture "opposite-edge" effects such as Japanese mimetic palatalization and Selkup stress assignment. Finally, we illustrate how the same mechanisms we outline in the analysis of directionality can be intuitively applied in the generation of bounded domain windows. Specifically, we illustrate how our approach models the generation of metrical stress window systems such as in Macedonian. Taken as a whole, we argue that distance-based penalty scaling handles both directionality and bounded domain window in a straightforward and unified manner

Looking into Segments

This paper outlines Q theory, in which the traditional segment (consonant, vowel) is decomposed into a string of three ordered subsegments, or q, representing the onset, target, and offset of the segment. The postulation of subsegmental structure permits the representation of complex (contour) segments as well as subtle contrasts in segment-internal changes of state. Q Theory synthesizes insights from Autosegmental Phonology, Aperture Theory, and Articulatory Phonology in a representation that standard phonological constraints can refer to. Q theory is supported by arguments that subsegments act independently and need to be independently referenced by the phonological grammar. Embedded into Agreement by Correspondence Theory, Q theory permits the analysis of contour assimilation as well as contour formation, both in the tonal and segmental domains.