Towards Eradicating Class Driven Allomorphy: Nominal Suffixes in Afar
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003533
May 2016
I propose that much of the ‘allomorphy’ associated with the three noun classes of Afar can be derived phonologically. In fact, it is not (properly speaking) allomorphy at all – in the sense that there is no selection between different morphs. This forms part of a program that attempts to remove class features from generative grammar. Eradicating noun class features, as is done for this data, allows for a more elegant and minimalist analysis with a clear demarcation between the features of semantic interpretation (e.g. [+fem]) and the features of phonological form (e.g. [+high]). In this way it upholds the architecture of grammar made popular by distributed morphology. In this problematic case study, we see that Afar nominal paradigms are characterized by both the introduction of features/melody and paradigm-specific stress shifts. The proposed re-analysis relies heavily on the notion of catalexis. Using a Strict CV representational model, I propose that nouns in Afar are always trochaic. The tripartite difference in the shape of nominal roots is reduced to what part of the trochee’s dependent CV is filled by melody: both C and V (V-Masc) [?bara] ‘night’, only C (C-Masc) [ma?tuk] ‘butter’ or neither (Fem) [?a?do] ‘meat’. The shape of these roots juxtaposed with the shape of the Afar affixes regularly predicts the ‘allomorphy’. The underlying form of the proposed affixes have an unusual structural condition, though one that is predicted by foundational autosegmental principles. These come with both features and skeletal structure unassociated to each other. Consequently, following my proposal, affixation can simultaneously introduce features and induce stress shift in a DM-compatible item-and-arrangement analysis, all the while without recourse to class features.