Abstract

Seenku (Mande, Burkina Faso) displays a complex tone sandhi system, sensitive to phonological, morphological, and syntactic structure. In this paper, I argue that the opaque, phonetically unnatural alternations are best accounted for in an allomorph selection approach, following work by Tsay and Myers (1996), Zhang and Lai (2008), and others on Taiwanese Southern Min sandhi. In this model, lexical entries contain multiple surface allomorphs along with subcategorization frames, and forms that follow the same pattern are abstracted into increasingly general lexical templates or schemas. Morphology is post-syntactic, with syntactic structure matched with lexical entries, along the lines of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993; Embick and Noyer 2007), but with a richer generative lexicon, as in Construction Morphology (Booij 2010b) or analogical approaches to word formation (e.g. Bybee 1995). The domains of application and the interaction of tone sandhi with both itself and other morphotonological processes point to the need for cyclic application, which I implement using phase-based spell out (Uriagereka 1999; Chomsky 2000). This approach allows for productive extension of the patterns without recourse to an overly complicated phonological component.

Highlights

  • Tone sandhi, at its simplest, refers to tonal changes that occur in context

  • McPherson: Seenku argument-head tone sandhi (Uriagereka 1999; Chomsky 2000); in this framework, syntactic structure is sent through Morphology, Phonology, and Semantics in chunks known as phases

  • If we look at the 1pl, we see that mV is a permissible pronoun shape, and yet 1sg emphatic mó behaves like a noun for the purposes of sandhi alternatons, showing that the Seenku sandhi system is sensitive to more than just phonological shape of the argument

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Summary

Introduction

At its simplest, refers to tonal changes that occur in context. But tone sandhi systems are often anything but simple. McPherson: Seenku argument-head tone sandhi (Uriagereka 1999; Chomsky 2000); in this framework, syntactic structure is sent through Morphology, Phonology, and Semantics in chunks known as phases This cyclicity allows us to account for both application and non-application without stipulating specific ordering principles and without ­creating a phonetically unnatural phonological grammar to handle the opaque alternations. In African languages in particular, ­common ­processes include spreading (bounded or unbounded, e.g. Ekegusii, Bickmore 1999), downstep (either from adjacent H tone autosegments or a floating L, e.g. Luganda, Hyman and Katamba 1993), tonal absorption (HL.L → H.L or LH.H → L.H, e.g. Maradi, Newman 1995), and tone polarity (e.g. Hausa, Newman 1995) While some of these tone processes are independently attested in Seenku tonology, we will see below that they do not form the basis of Seenku sandhi.

Background on Seenku
D NP bɛɛ
Sandhi and plural formation
Recursive sandhi domains
Complex heads
Co-phonologies by phase
10 Conclusion
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