Generalised mora affixation and quantity-manipulating morphology

• Published in: Phonology Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 463 - 510
• Main Authors: Trommer, Jochen, Zimmermann, Eva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01-12-2014
• Subjects: Affixes; Autosegmental phonology; Case Studies; Classical Literature; Consonants; Linearization; Linguistic morphology; Linguistics; Mora; Morphemes; Morphological analysis; Morphology; Phonemes; Phonetics; Phonology; Polarity; Prosody; Subtraction; Suprasegmentals; Syllables; Verbs; Vowels; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 0952-6757; 1469-8188
• DOI: 10.1017/S0952675714000220

One of the major attributes of autosegmental phonology is the possibility of
reducing procedural techniques of morphological exponence to a generalised
concept of concatenation. This research programme, which equates the triggers of
non-concatenative processes with affixes consisting of incomplete autosegmental
or prosodic representations, is called Generalised Non-linear Affixation in
Bermúdez-Otero (2012). In this paper, we argue that the Generalised
Non-linear Affixation analysis of segmental lengthening by mora affixation
extends naturally to subtractive morphology. Defective (phonetically
uninterpretable) integration of an affix mora into the prosodic structure of its
base triggers deletion and shortening. We show that this approach derives all
major types of quantity-manipulating morphology (vowel shortening, segmental
subtraction and vowel-length polarity), and thus demonstrate that Generalised
Non-linear Affixation extends fully to subtractive morphology, which has been
seen as the ultimate problem for a concatenative reanalysis (Anderson 1992).