Main content

Home

Menu

Loading wiki pages...

View
Wiki Version:
Nearly all verbs in Uab Meto (Austronesian; Indonesia/Timor-Leste) have subject-agreement prefixes from one of two sets: consonant- (C-) prefixes and consonant-vowel- (CV-) prefixes. The choice between the two sets is conditioned by a variety of factors. Building on previous work on the language (Edwards 2020, Tan 2023) and data from the author's own fieldwork, this poster affirms the descriptive generalization that phonological factors like the shape of the stem (V-, CV-, or CCV-initial) and the number of syllables are the primary determinant of the choice of allomorph, but lexical selection and morphosyntactic factors like causativization also play a role. The poster provides a theoretical analysis of this allomorphy within the framework of Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993) and discusses a couple of aspects of this allomorphy that lead to unconventional conclusions about the possibilities for allomorphic conditioning. Firstly, non-null causative v is a suffix, separated from the agreement prefixes by at least the root, but it conditions the CV- agreement prefixes despite the absence of linear adjacency. However, with Pruning (Embick 2015), causative v can be made structurally adjacent to the agreement prefixes on Agr, suggesting that this sort of adjacency is sufficient for allomorphic conditioning. Agr is higher in the structure than causative v, which demonstrates the possibility of inward-sensitive morphosyntactically conditioned allomorphy (Harizanov & Gribanova 2014). Roots that lexically condition CV- agreement prefixes can also be made structurally adjacent to Agr via Pruning. When Voice is overt, it cannot be Pruned to create structural adjacency between either causative v and Agr or the root and Agr, so default C- agreement prefixes are used instead. Secondly, verb stems that are three syllables or longer condition the C- agreement prefixes. In many cases, no individual morpheme in the stem is 3+ syllables on its own, but the syllable count of the whole stem (Paster 2009) or span (Merchant 2015) of Voice, v, and the root can collectively create the relevant conditioning environment for C- Agr. This conditioning overrides conditioning for CV- Agr by causative v, suggesting that when in direct competition, phonological context outranks grammatical context. Ultimately, these allomorphy patterns suggest that structural adjacency, rather than linear adjacency, is what matters for allomorphic conditioning, and these relationships are calculated based on adjacency to whole stems headed by particular affixes, rather than adjacency to any particular morpheme.
OSF does not support the use of Internet Explorer. For optimal performance, please switch to another browser.
Accept
This website relies on cookies to help provide a better user experience. By clicking Accept or continuing to use the site, you agree. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and information on cookie use.
Accept
×

Start managing your projects on the OSF today.

Free and easy to use, the Open Science Framework supports the entire research lifecycle: planning, execution, reporting, archiving, and discovery.