Cyclicity and prosody in Armenian stress-assignment

The morphology-phonology interface is rife with examples of interactions between the two modules. Various theoretical models have been proposed to either a) cover the entire interface, or b) cover a subset of this interface. Lexical Phonology and Prosodic Phonology are two popular models of how this interface operates. However it is an open question if both models are needed and if one can do the job of the other. In this paper, data from Armenian morpho-phonology shows the need for both models to be combined and used as one single model for the interface. Crucially, data on Armenian stress assignment and destressed vowel reduction necesitates using both Lexical Phonology\u27s concepts of cyclicity and strata and Prosodic Phonology\u27s concepts of prosodic stems and prosodic non-isomorphism

Prosodically-conditioned relative clause extraposition in Armenian

Armenian is an SOV language that has post-nominal finite relative clauses (RCs). These clauses are typically immediately post-nominal: N+RC. But in various contexts, the relative clause is extraposed to the right edge of the sentence: N+V+RC instead of *N+RC+V. The various contexts are united by how the modified noun is prosodically phrased with an immediately following verb. We argue that extraposition is conditioned by prosodic phrasing. A host of syntactic factors (definiteness, subject/object, valency) are indirectly involved in extraposition, but these factors are tied directly to prosodic phrasing. Exceptions to this generalization are limited and come from verb focus and possible recursive phrasing

Multi-Input Strictly Local Functions for Templatic Morphology

This paper presents an automata-theoretic characterization of templatic morphology. We generalize the Input Strictly Local class of functions, which characterize a majority of concatenative morphology, to consider multiple lexical inputs. We show that strictly local asynchronous multi-tape transducers successfully capture this typology of nonconcatenative template filling. This characterization and restriction uniquely opens up representational issues in morphological computatio

Finite-State Locality in Semitic Root-and-Pattern Morphology

This paper discusses the generative capacity required for Semitic root-and-pattern morphology. Finite-state methods effectively compute concatenative morpho-phonology, and can be restricted to Strictly Local functions. We extend these methods to consider non-concatenative morphology. We show that over such multi-input functions, Strict Locality is necessary and sufficient. We discuss some consequences of this generalization for linguistic theories of the morphological template

Simplification principles and child language development in Armenian

At certain stages of their general cognitive development  and language acquisition, children apparently employ their innately growing (cognitive) knowledge and skills to meet the challenges they face in L1 acquisition. Among other things, children use different sets of simplification strategies, such as cropping words, replacing or displacing syllables or syllabic constituents,   omitting suffixes, and using simpler syntax. We catalog processes like fortition, reduplication, and the various stages of acquisition. This paper presents some language development data in Armenian children. Empirically, our study is one of the few (if only) known studies on the language acquisition of Armenian. The data  provides valuable theoretical insight into the strategies that children pursue in communication, as well as in cognitive processing of speech

RedTyp: A Database of Reduplication with Computational Models

Reduplication is a theoretically and typologically well-studied phenomenon, but there is no database of reduplication patterns which include explicit computational models. This paper introduces RedTyp, an SQL database which provides a computational resource that can be used by both theoretical and computational linguists who work on reduplication. It catalogs 138 reduplicative morphemes across 91 languages, which are modeled with 57 distinct finite-state machines. The finite-state machines are 2-way transducers, which provide an explicit, compact, and convenient representation for reduplication patterns, and which arguably capture the linguistic generalizations more directly than the more commonly used 1-way transducers for modeling natural language morphophonology

Mobile Affixes Across Western Armenian: Conflicts Across Modules

In this paper, we discuss the cross-linguistically rare case of mobile affixation in three Western Armenian varieties, in which the Indicative marker alternates between a prefixal and a suffixal realization depending on the context. In Hamshen Armenian, conditioning is fully phonological: the Indicative is a prefix if the verb is vowel-initial and a suffix elsewhere. However, in Gyumri and Akhalkalaki Armenian, the placement of the Indicative marker is subject to a curious interleaving between phonological and syntactic conditions. First, if a consonant-initial verb is alone in some relevant syntactic domain, the affix takes a suffixal position, but if there is extra syntactic elements present, it surfaces as a prefix (syntactic condition). This domain is similar to syntactic phases but not always isomorphic to them. In Akhalkalaki, the Indicative is even capable of leaving the verb base and cliticizing onto the constituent bearing the sentential stress. We discuss the data and provide a preliminary analysis

Strong Generative Capacity of Morphological Processes

Morphological processes are generally computable with 1-way finite-state transducers. However, we show that 1-way transducers do not capture the strong generative capacity of certain morphological analyses for more complex processes, including mobile affixation, infixation, and partial reduplication. As diagnostics for strong generative capacity, we use origin semantics and order-preservation. These analyze the input-output correspondences generated by finite-state transducers and their corresponding logical transductions. For some linguistic analyses of these complex processes, their strong generative capacity is matched by more expressive grammars, such as non-order-preserving transductions and their corresponding 2-way finite-state transducers

Effects of zero morphology on syncretism and allomorphy in Western Armenian verbs

Verbs in Western Armenian (Indo-European) inflect for both subject agreement and tense. Subject and tense marking is often fused, which makes segmentation difficult. We show that, despite surface fusion, verbal inflection in Western Armenian is fundamentally agglutinative. By segmenting subject and tense suffixes across the verbal paradigm, we capture syncretic patterns and other interactions between inflectional slots that a fusional account does not. Our analysis requires limited but systematic use of zero morphs. Our agglutinative model of Western Armenian verbs reveals that inwardly-sensitive morphologically-conditioned allomorphy has priority over its outwardly-sensitive counterpart

Multi-Input Strict Local Functions for Tonal Phonology

This paper presents an automata-theoretic characterization of the typology of attested tonal patterns using enriched data structures. We generalize the Input Strictly Local class of functions to consider multiple inputs of tonal and segmental strings, and find that the associated strictly local multi-tape transducers successfully capture tonal typology. Links between automata-theoretic and logical characterizations of phonological expressivity showcase the tradeoffs in data structure and locality in the expressivity of phonological computation