Rolle & Hyman (2018) – Phrase-level Prosodic Smothering in Makonde

Phrase-level Prosodic Smothering in Makonde
Nicholas Rolle, Larry M. Hyman
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004378
December 2018
This paper focuses on the issue of ‘prosodic idiosyncrasies’ as it arises in the Bantu language Makonde [kde]. Recently, Bennett, Harizanov, & Henderson (2018) proposed
‘prosodic smothering’, whereby prosodic requirements of an outer morpheme override (i.e. ‘smother’) prosodic properties of inner morphemes. We extend their analysis to p
hrase-level phonology in Makonde. Previous description has established that whether a nominal modifier forms a single phonological phrase ? with the noun is an idiosyncr
atic property, e.g. a [NOUN ADJECTIVE] phrase maps to 2 phonological phrases ?(N) ?(ADJ) while a [NOUN DEMONSTRATIVE] phrase forms a single phonological phrase ?(N DEM).
Prosodic smothering is seen in [NOUN ADJ DEM] sequences which form a single ?(N ADJ DEM) phonological phrase, where the ADJ has been ‘entrapped’ and its prosody ‘smothe
red’. We highlight three contributions which Makonde makes to understanding smothering: (i) smothering targets the lexical head, (ii) smothering is both inward-oriented
(a morphological relation) and leftward-oriented (a linear relation), and (iii) a limited amount of outward smothering is parasitic on the presence of inward smothering.
From the smothering facts in Makonde, we conclude that prosody is established at two stages: first, prosodic idiosyncrasies apply at spell-out (i.e. the mapping from sy
ntax to phonology), followed by default prosodification which is established within the phonological module itself.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004378
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: AMP proceedings (To appear in Katherine Hout, Anna Mai, Adam McCollum, Sharon Rose & Matt Zaslansky (eds.), Supplemental Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Meeting on Phonology. Washington, DC: Linguistic Society of America.)
keywords: prosody, syntax/phonology mapping, subcategorization, prosodic constituency, phrasal phonology, penultimate lengthening, bantu, morphology, phonology