Tone Polarity in Kɔnni nouns.pdf

Since Kenstowicz et at's analysis of Moore (1988), a widespread view is that tone polarity does not exist; apparent polarity is actually dissimilation. This paper shows that an OCP-based dissimilation analysis cannot account for the full range of K:mni data, and presents a morpheme-specific POL...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Michael Cahill
Format: article
Language:EN
FR
Published: LibraryPress@UF 2004
Subjects:
OCP
K
mni
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/c8b73c2dc8ca433792f7260fc7b6b7c1
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Since Kenstowicz et at's analysis of Moore (1988), a widespread view is that tone polarity does not exist; apparent polarity is actually dissimilation. This paper shows that an OCP-based dissimilation analysis cannot account for the full range of K:mni data, and presents a morpheme-specific POLAR constraint referring to the Noun Class 1 plural suffix. POLAR is satisfied in two or possibly three ways: the polar tone may be inserted, be already present in the input, or possibly spread from the definite suffix. The polar tone is not always on the word's edge, and for some words may even be floating. The analysis here thus supports the assertion of Newman (1995) that tone polarity is a natural pattern of language.