Adjective reduplications in Fuzhou: A morpho-phonological analysis

Abstract

This paper studies adjective reduplications in Fuzhou within the framework of autosegmental phonology and lexical phonology. I first examine the morphological process of reduplication, focusing on the definition of base as the target of reduplication. I argue that the bimorphemic base for reduplication is defined in two ways: either morphologically, where the entire compound reduplicates as a whole, or prosodically, where reduplication applies under positive prosodic circumscription accessing either or both edges of the bimorphemic base. I then investigate the phonological changes subsequent and unique to reduplication. I propose that a binary iambic foot is constructed at the right edge in each reduplication output where the penult syllable dominated by the weak node undergoes regular sandhi. The antepenult and preantepenult, if any, are unfooted and will have their tones delined and later get a default low tone. I also show that the fixed melodic material in one of the reduplication patterns is the result of a default vowel realization. Finally, I discuss the extension of the metrical treatment to the non-reduplication data as provided in Chan (1985).