The tonal phonology of Yoruba clitics
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Akinbiyi Akinlabi
Abstract
This paper examines the tonal behavior of six types of enclitics in Standard Yoruba, and shows that in all six cases, a constraint applies preventing the last syllable of the host and the adjacent clitic syllable from having the same (High or Low) tone. There are no other host + clitic cases in Yoruba for which such a constraint would be relevant. Potential violations of the constraint are avoided by one of five different methods, depending on the case: failure to link a floating tone, deletion of a tone belonging to the clitic, deletion of a tone belonging to the host, insertion of a toneless vowel, or failure to delete an otherwise optional toneless vowel. This pattern is thus a morphophonemic “conspiracy” in the classical sense. However, Yoruba does not have a more general constraint against same-tone sequences in underlying or derived environments.
Abstract
This paper examines the tonal behavior of six types of enclitics in Standard Yoruba, and shows that in all six cases, a constraint applies preventing the last syllable of the host and the adjacent clitic syllable from having the same (High or Low) tone. There are no other host + clitic cases in Yoruba for which such a constraint would be relevant. Potential violations of the constraint are avoided by one of five different methods, depending on the case: failure to link a floating tone, deletion of a tone belonging to the clitic, deletion of a tone belonging to the host, insertion of a toneless vowel, or failure to delete an otherwise optional toneless vowel. This pattern is thus a morphophonemic “conspiracy” in the classical sense. However, Yoruba does not have a more general constraint against same-tone sequences in underlying or derived environments.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Clitics from different perspectives 1
- The tonal phonology of Yoruba clitics 31
- Adjective-clitic combinations in the Greek DP 63
- Free clitics and bound affixes 85
- Clitics and coordination in linear structure 121
- The acquisition of clitics and strong pronouns in Catalan 161
- The prosodic representation of clitics in Irish 181
- Positioning Romanian verbal clitics at PF 219
- Clitic placement in the Romanian verbal complex 255
- Romanian definite articles are not clitics 295
- Clitics in the Srpske narodne pjesme 325
- Verbal clitics in Bulgarian 355
- Operator clitics 387
- Doubling and possession 405
- Name index 433
- Subject index 437
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Clitics from different perspectives 1
- The tonal phonology of Yoruba clitics 31
- Adjective-clitic combinations in the Greek DP 63
- Free clitics and bound affixes 85
- Clitics and coordination in linear structure 121
- The acquisition of clitics and strong pronouns in Catalan 161
- The prosodic representation of clitics in Irish 181
- Positioning Romanian verbal clitics at PF 219
- Clitic placement in the Romanian verbal complex 255
- Romanian definite articles are not clitics 295
- Clitics in the Srpske narodne pjesme 325
- Verbal clitics in Bulgarian 355
- Operator clitics 387
- Doubling and possession 405
- Name index 433
- Subject index 437
