Laura McPherson

Relating application frequency to morphological structure: the case of Tommo So vowel harmony *

We describe three vowel harmony processes of Tommo So (Dogon, Mali) and their interaction with morphological structure. The verbal suffixes of Tommo So occur in a strict linear order, establishing a hierarchy of “distance from the stem”. This distance is respected by all three harmony processes; they “peter out”, applying with lower frequency as distance from stem is increased. The function relating application rate to distance is well-fitted by a sigmoid curve, specifically the logistic function. We show that this function is obtained when the analysis is stated in the theory of harmonic grammar. The crucially conflicting constraints are FAITHFULNESS (violated just once by harmonized candidates) and a gradient version of AGREE (violated from 0-7 times, based on closeness of target to the stem). We conclude by reviewing other cases where a similar conflict between categorical and scalar constraints can account for sigmoid frequency distributions in language. McPherson/Hayes Tommo So Vowel Harmony p. 2

Cyclic spell-out and the interaction of Seenku tonal processes

This paper demonstrates how tone can provide clues about large-scale grammatical architecture, by focusing on the interaction between three tonal processes in Seenku, a Mande language of Burkina Faso with a four-height tone system (tones: eL, L, H, eH). First, a phonotactic restriction against H in word-final position in open class vocabulary triggers epenthesis of eL, creating a H-eL contour. Second, plurals are formed in part by a raising tonal chain shift, argued to be due to the suffixation of a [+raised] feature. Third, the tone of inalienably possessed nouns changes according to the possessor (spreading from non-pronominal possessors, a series of tonal alternations triggered by pronominal possessors). The interaction of these three processes points to systemic cyclicity, rather than word-level cyclicity in the phonology: the possessor must undergo all tonal processes first, as the raised plural tone or epenthesized eL can spread to the possessed noun. Within the possessed noun’s cycle, it must undergo possessive interactions before plural formation. The facts can be accounted for in a framework of cyclic spell-out, where more deeply embedded phases (here, the possessor’s DP) are sent to spell-out and receive morphophonological form before less deeply embedded phases (the overarching DP containing the possessed noun). Further, the order of processes within a cycle points to Morphology before Phonology in the computation of surface form. This approach fares better than alternatives, including cophonologies and Stratal OT.

Cognitive set and lexicalization strategy in dogon action verbs

Dogon languages lexicalize action verbs with obligatory reference to manner and/or process. This contrasts with English and “Standard Average European,” which (in neutral contexts) profile result and/or function. Many common English verbs like carry and eat correspond to sets of Dogon verbs with senses like ‘carry on back’ and ‘munch’. The pattern cuts across many semantic domains and constitutes a generalized lexicalization strategy, which suggests that Dogon speakers, on the one hand, and speakers of English and “Standard Average European,” on the other, have distinct cognitive orientations toward observable actions. A number of explanatory frameworks are available to account for these cultural differences.

Cumulativity and ganging in the tonology of Awa suffixes: Supplementary materials

This article revives old descriptive data on Awa, a Papuan language of the Kainantu group. The tonal system was described in detail in a paper by Loving (1973), where he reports a series of toneless noun suffixes, falling into six classes depending on their tonal alternations when combined with a noun root. This article demonstrates that the suffixes are best understood as carrying lexical tone; the alternations in form arise from the interaction of typologically natural tonotactic constraints. While the system can be described in autosegmental terms without much difficulty, a formal constraint-based analysis is less straightforward. I show that strict ranking, as in optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004 [1993]), fails to capture the data patterns due to cumulativity effects, some of which cannot be naturally captured even with local constraint conjunction (Smolensky 2006). The data are successfully modeled in harmonic grammar (Legendre et al. 1990).

Predicting vowel backness variability in Tommo‐So.

Tommo‐So (Dogon, Mali) has highly restrictive vowel phonotactics in stems. While any of its seven vowels may occur in the first syllable, the set of possible subsequent vowels is small, and noninitial nonlow vowels often exhibit a wide range of gradient variation in backness (while their phonological height remains fixed). Our study examines the second vowel of disyllabic words at all nonlow heights where (1) V1 = V2, (2) V1 is high and V2 is mid, and (3) V1 is mid and V2 is high, as well as the definite enclitic in various consonantal contexts. Preliminary acoustic analysis reveals that backness variation in V2 covers the whole range of front to back and yet is significantly less bimodal than would be expected if it were variation between discrete front and back allophones. Moreover, the majority of the variation cannot be attributed to coarticulation; that is, the same speaker will produce the same stimulus differently at different times. Nonetheless, if the first vowel is identical, variation is much r...