Past participles in Mòcheno
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Birgit Alber
Abstract
Mòcheno, a German variety spoken in Trentino (Italy), displays an interesting case of phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy in past participle formation. Past participle formation involves a variety of strategies, from absence of a prefix, to affrication, to prefixing a CV-prefix ga-. I propose that two allomorphs are involved in the process, a subsegment [?cont, ?voice] and a prefix ga- and that the distribution of the two allomorphs is regulated by a hierarchy of wellformedness constraints. This hierarchy in turn consists of two independent partial hierarchies, which are active in the grammar of the language in general, where they are responsible for morphoprosodic alignment at left stem edges and for the distribution of obstruents, respectively. This means that Mòcheno past participles give us evidence in favor of the hypothesis that allomorph selection can, and sometimes must, be interpreted in terms of optimization. By adopting an alternative analysis in terms of subcategorization of the allomorphs for a certain phonological context, the relationship between the distribution of past participle allomorphs and other pieces of the Mòcheno grammar would remain completely opaque.
Abstract
Mòcheno, a German variety spoken in Trentino (Italy), displays an interesting case of phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy in past participle formation. Past participle formation involves a variety of strategies, from absence of a prefix, to affrication, to prefixing a CV-prefix ga-. I propose that two allomorphs are involved in the process, a subsegment [?cont, ?voice] and a prefix ga- and that the distribution of the two allomorphs is regulated by a hierarchy of wellformedness constraints. This hierarchy in turn consists of two independent partial hierarchies, which are active in the grammar of the language in general, where they are responsible for morphoprosodic alignment at left stem edges and for the distribution of obstruents, respectively. This means that Mòcheno past participles give us evidence in favor of the hypothesis that allomorph selection can, and sometimes must, be interpreted in terms of optimization. By adopting an alternative analysis in terms of subcategorization of the allomorphs for a certain phonological context, the relationship between the distribution of past participle allomorphs and other pieces of the Mòcheno grammar would remain completely opaque.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- List of contributors xi
- Why study Sprachinseln from generative or structural perspectives? 1
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Section 1. Phonetics & Phonology
- On final laryngeal distinctions in Wisconsin Standard German 13
- Past participles in Mòcheno 33
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Section 2. Morphology & Lexical studies
- Plautdietsch gender 67
- Anaphors in contact 111
- Lexical developments in Texas German 129
- Gender assignment of English loanwords in Pennsylvania German 151
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Section 3. Syntax I - Verb clusters
- Synchrony and diachrony of verb clusters in Pennsylvania Dutch 165
- Looking for order in chaos 187
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Section 4. Syntax II - The syntax of Cimbrian German
- Spoken syntax in Cimbrian of the linguistic islands in Northern Italy- and what they (do not) betray about language universals and change under areal contact with Italo-Romance 233
- Diachronic clues to grammaticalization phenomena in the Cimbrian CP 279
- Hidden verb second 301
- Revisiting the Wackernagelposition 347
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Section 5. Syntax III - The syntax of Pennsylvania German
- Changes in frequency as a measure of language change 371
- From preposition to purposive to infinitival marker 385
-
Section 6. Pragmatics & Conversation analysis
- Word choice, turn construction, and topic management in German conversation 415
- Texas German discourse pragmatics 455
- Index 475
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- List of contributors xi
- Why study Sprachinseln from generative or structural perspectives? 1
-
Section 1. Phonetics & Phonology
- On final laryngeal distinctions in Wisconsin Standard German 13
- Past participles in Mòcheno 33
-
Section 2. Morphology & Lexical studies
- Plautdietsch gender 67
- Anaphors in contact 111
- Lexical developments in Texas German 129
- Gender assignment of English loanwords in Pennsylvania German 151
-
Section 3. Syntax I - Verb clusters
- Synchrony and diachrony of verb clusters in Pennsylvania Dutch 165
- Looking for order in chaos 187
-
Section 4. Syntax II - The syntax of Cimbrian German
- Spoken syntax in Cimbrian of the linguistic islands in Northern Italy- and what they (do not) betray about language universals and change under areal contact with Italo-Romance 233
- Diachronic clues to grammaticalization phenomena in the Cimbrian CP 279
- Hidden verb second 301
- Revisiting the Wackernagelposition 347
-
Section 5. Syntax III - The syntax of Pennsylvania German
- Changes in frequency as a measure of language change 371
- From preposition to purposive to infinitival marker 385
-
Section 6. Pragmatics & Conversation analysis
- Word choice, turn construction, and topic management in German conversation 415
- Texas German discourse pragmatics 455
- Index 475
