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Tone (non-) transfer in Bantu verbal reduplication
Abstract
A long-standing problem in analyzing Bantu verbal reduplication is to account for why tone does not usually transfer along with the segmental content of the Base. Even though most current theories of reduplication predict the reduplicant's tone (and other prosodic information) should be faithful to the Base, in fact, this is found in only one Bantu language, Chichewa. In other Bantu languages, either tone is realized only on the Base, or the reduplicant (RED) forms a single domain of tone realization with the Base. In this paper, I propose that tone realization in the RED+Base complex falls out if the complex is a compound verb stem. Then tone realization in the complex can be seen to be parallel to accent realization in compounds in other languages. I show this analysis improves on previous ones as it correctly predicts a three-way, rather than two-way, pattern of variation in realizing tone in reduplicated forms. The analysis thus confirms work showing that both morphological and phonological factors determine the realization of reduplicative morphemes.
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Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on The Typology of Tone Languages (1992)
In Wolaitta, an Omotic language spoken in the south-central part of Ethiopia. simple phonological words are usually restricted to one high tone-accent per word. Nouns and adjectives have a similar tone-accent pattern, while verb roots differ from these in many respects. Morphology may alter the pattern in simple lexical forms in the sense that derivation and inflection may result in the presence of more than one high tone-accent in a word or, alternatively, in that they cause shift of the original tone accent. In nouns this depends on definiteness and the location of tone-accent in the citation form, while in verbs it is determined by the presence or absence of high tone-accent on the verb root and the type of suffix attached to it. High tone-accent marking in phrases can be predicted from the tone-accent pattern of the citation form of the modifier(s).
Systematic obfuscation of morphology in Dakota
- J K Chambers
- P A Shaw
Chambers, J.K. & P.A. Shaw. 1980. Systematic obfuscation of morphology in Dakota. Linguistic Inquiry 11, 325-36
The Tonal Phonology of Jita
- Downing
- J Laura
Downing, Laura J. 1996. The Tonal Phonology of Jita. Munich: LINCOM EUROPA