The topology of infixation and reduplication

Abstract

This article is concerned with how to characterize and constrain the typology of reduplication and affixation, given Raimy's (Representing reduplication, University of Delaware dissertation, 1999 et seq.) precedence-based theory of phonological representations as directed graphs. First, we establish a typology of attested reduplication and infixation anchor points based on an empirical survey. We then extend the search and copy algorithms proposed by Mailhot & Reiss (Biolinguistics 1: 28–48, 2007) for long-distance assimilation (harmony) processes to the morphological domain, proposing modifications to reconcile this formalism with Raimy's. Finally, we argue for an amended version of a proposal by Idsardi & Shorey (Unwinding morphology, 2007) regarding the process by which ‘looped’ representations created during the course of morphological concatenation are linearized.