Phrase-level Prosodic Smothering in Makonde

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of ‘prosodic idiosyncrasies’ as it arises in the Bantu language Makonde [kde]. Recently, Bennett, Harizanov, & Henderson (2018) proposed ‘prosodic smothering’, whereby prosodic requirements of an outer morpheme override (i.e. ‘smother’) prosodic properties of inner morphemes. We extend their analysis to phrase-level phonology in Makonde. Previous description has established that whether a nominal modifier forms a single phonological phrase φ with the noun is an idiosyncratic property, e.g. a [noun adjective] phrase maps to 2 phonological phrases φ(n) φ(adj) while a [noun demonstrative] phrase forms a single phonological phrase φ(n dem). Prosodic smothering is seen in [noun adj dem] sequences which form a single φ(n adj dem) phonological phrase, where the adj has been ‘entrapped’ and its prosody ‘smothered’. We highlight three contributions which Makonde makes to understanding smothering: (i) smothering targets the lexical head, (ii) smothering is both inward-oriented (a morphological relation) and leftward-oriented (a linear relation), and (iii) a limited amount of outward smothering is parasitic on the presence of inward smothering. From the smothering facts in Makonde, we conclude that prosody is established at two stages: first, prosodic idiosyncrasies apply at spell-out (i.e. the mapping from syntax to phonology), followed by default prosodification which is established within the phonological module itself.

Cophonologies by Ph(r)ase

“…We intend P-content to serve as a well-formedness condition on the morpheme's prosodic realization. Such conditions contribute lexically-specified prosodic structure, and allow the grammar to encode lexically-triggered exceptions to the general isomorphism between syntax and prosody (see Nespor and Vogel 1986;Inkelas 1990;Bennett et al 2018;Kalivoda 2018;Bennett and Elfner 2019), as well as enabling processes such as prosodic adjunction (Ito and Mester 2007) or prosodic smothering (Bennett et al 2018;Rolle and Hyman 2019). Following Inkelas (1990), we take affix or clitic direction to be part of the P specification, as affixation typically makes explicit reference to prosodic domains such as words or larger prosodic constituents for its well-formedness.…”

A Command Theoretic approach to prosodic smothering

“…The smothering pattern, on this view, reflects two things: that the "trigger" of smothering is a head that c-commands into the phrases that it smothers and that the language in question prefers to satisfy Together over Apart when the two constraints come into conflict. The theory developed here ends up being more restrictive than the theories developed by Bennett et al 2018 andHyman 2019. This theory leads us to expect that the "smothering" property should hold of categories of lexical items in a language but should not vary within a category.…”

“…In Rolle & Hyman 2019, this is taken as evidence that any element may potentially be specified in the lexicon as a trigger of smothering: on Rolle & Hyman's view, adjectives in Coastal Shimakonde are simply specified in the lexicon as elements that trigger smothering. For the theory developed here, the typologically unusual word order of (19c), in which a numeral modifier appears between the adjective and nominal head, will be the key to explaining this pattern of smothering apparently triggered by a modifier.…”

“…Recent work in Bennett et al 2018 and Rolle & Hyman 2019 gives a name to a particular sort of prosodic phenomenon: prosodic smothering . An abstract schema of the smothering pattern is in (1).…”

“…The discussion begins with the patterns of smothering found within the nominal domain in a number of Makonde dialects, patterns discussed first in Rolle & Hyman 2019. I show that these languages are of the type where T ogether outranks A part , with the patterns of smothering reflecting (i) a syntactic distinction between smotherers and nonsmotherers and (ii) the position in the nominal domain that the nominal head raises to, rather than being a stipulated property of particular elements in the nominal domain.…”