Phrasal grammatical tone in the Dogon languages: The role of constraint interaction

L McPherson, J Heath - Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2016 - Springer
L McPherson, J Heath
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2016Springer
Tonosyntax in the Dogon languages of Mali is characterized by word-level tone overlays that
apply in specific morphosyntactic contexts. This paper focuses on the resolution of
competitions that arise when a word is targeted by more than one tone overlay. For example,
in Poss N Adj the possessor and the adjective compete to impose their respective tone
overlays on (at least) the noun, and Dogon languages show different outcomes. We argue
that overlays are tonal morphemes associated with particular syntactic positions and …
Abstract
Tonosyntax in the Dogon languages of Mali is characterized by word-level tone overlays that apply in specific morphosyntactic contexts. This paper focuses on the resolution of competitions that arise when a word is targeted by more than one tone overlay. For example, in Poss N Adj the possessor and the adjective compete to impose their respective tone overlays on (at least) the noun, and Dogon languages show different outcomes. We argue that overlays are tonal morphemes associated with particular syntactic positions and propose a series of phrasal Optimality Theoretic constraints, grounded in syntactic structure, that control the association of these morphemes. The relative ranking of constraints determines the outcome of tonosyntactic competitions in a given language.
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