What is the nature of the interaction between scope, phonological conditions and morphologically specified precedence relations in determining affix combinatorics in morphologically complex languages? In depth studies of affix ordering patterns in typologically diverse languages reveal intricate interactions among multiple factors. Mixed scope/template systems, for instance, have been characterized as either involving scope taking precedence over templates [Athabaskan (Rice 2000)], or templates overriding scope [Chichewa (Hyman 2002 and Pulaar (Paster 2005)]. This paper makes an empirical contribution by documenting a novel type of affix order system of a previously unstudied language, Choguita Rarámuri, a Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Mexico, which features free affix permutation, and which cannot be characterized as either 'template-emergent' or 'scope-emergent'. In this agglutinating language, scope and morphological constraints are freely ranked, with phonological subcategorization overriding all other constraints. This paper also documents how semantically non-compositional suffix sequences may arise through priming effects and morphophonologically conditioned multiple exponence.
This article investigates the morphologically conditioned stress system of a previously undocumented Uto-Aztecan language, Choguita Rarámuri (Tarahumara). Stress distribution in Choguita Rarámuri results from a complex interaction between lexically prespecified stress, two systematic subpatterns (second and third syllable stress), a stress rule specific to noun incorporation constructions, and an initial three-syllable window, a highly unusual typological pattern. This article presents a cophonology analysis that captures the full range of stress alternations in this language through the association of morphological constructions with fully general phonological subgrammars, and through the association of morphologically conditioned phonological effects to the hierarchical structure of morphologically complex words. The c ophonology analysis is contrasted with a Root Controlled Accent (RCA) analysis, an indexed constraint analysis argued for in Alderete (2001aAlderete ( , 2001b to account for the stress patterns of Cupeño, a Uto-Aztecan language with stress alternations similar to those attested in Choguita Rarámuri. In an RCA analysis, stress alternations are derived through a single constraint ranking and faithfulness constraints indexed to specific morphological contexts. This a rticle argues that an analysis that overlooks morphological constituency and which indexes faithfulness constraints to morphological environments undergenerates in the Choguita Rarámuri case.
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