A Parallel Approach to Mobile Affixation in Huave

Sam Zukoff

doi:10.3765/amp.v9i0.4910

Abstract

Huave exhibits "mobile affixation", whereby the placement of individual affixes varies depending on the phonological properties of affix and stem. Kim (2008, 2010) analyzed these facts within a cyclic cophonology approach through the interaction between alignment constraints (McCarthy & Prince, 1993) and the phonological constraints *CC and DEP. Using the same core components, this paper develops an alternative, fully parallel analysis.In this approach, morphemes are unordered in the phonological input, every morpheme is indexed to its own (crucially gradient) alignment constraint, and output ordering is determined entirely through simultaneous constraint interaction. Notably, this analysis captures a previously unnoticed generalization about the stability of left/right order between affixes in the language.The main contribution of this new analysis is that it provides a principled distinction between mobile and immobile affixes: the order of affixes, as determined by the relative ranking of their alignment constraints, correlates with their ability to trigger epenthesis, as determined by their ranking relative to DEP. This follows from a parallel approach with a single language-wide ranking, but not from a cyclic cophonology account. Furthermore, this distinction can be tied directly to morphosyntactic structure via Zukoff's (2020) "Mirror Alignment Principle" and considerations of Base-Derivative faithfulness (Benua, 1997).

Highlights

This paper examines the system of “mobile affixation” in Huave, the San Francisco del Mar variety described and analyzed by Kim (2008, 2010, 2015a,b)
The central properties of Huave’s mobile affixation system can be exemplified by the behavior of the Completive /t/ (CP) when it attaches to simple bases, as shown in (1)
* n -i-m-e-hÙ, *m-i- n -e-hÙ, *i-m-e- n -a+hÙ. We can characterize this unexpected behavior in a simple way: right-alignment of the plural affix is more important than avoiding epenthesis, which translates into the ranking in (49)

Summary

Introduction

This paper examines the system of “mobile affixation” in Huave (isolate, Mexico), the San Francisco del Mar variety described and analyzed by Kim (2008, 2010, 2015a,b). (Some layers require further internal structure.) The Layers marked with dotted lines contain mobile affixes In this approach, mobile affixes are morphemes whose exponent is a single consonant, and whose cophonology is the one in (5a), where the anti-cluster constraints outrank the relevant alignment constraint. Following Zukoff, morphemes are unordered in the phonological input, and surface order is computed entirely in parallel In this analysis, mobile affixes are morphemes with a single-consonant exponent and a right-oriented alignment constraint that ranks below {*CC ≫ DEP}. Throughout the paper, I will focus on demonstrating that a single, consistent constraint ranking, comprised of just alignment constraints and the fragment {*CC ≫ DEP}, can derive the full range of mobility patterns It is not the goal of this paper to argue against Kim’s analysis.

Basic mobility

Unexpected epenthesis and morphosyntactic structure

Conclusion