Stratal overgeneration is necessary: metrically incoherent syncope in Southern Pomo

Abstract

Southern Pomo (Pomoan, California) displays a process of rhythmic vowel deletion (syncope) reflecting two mutually incompatible metrical structures. This phenomenon, called metrical incoherence, can be derived by an ordered sequence of independent subgrammars, that is, strata. Metrical incoherence is under-attested crosslinguistically, and the stratal models of phonology necessary to generate it have been criticised for predicting counter-typological phenomena. Nevertheless, the Southern Pomo data cannot be generated in more restrictive frameworks. This article argues that overgeneration is a necessary property of the phonological component, and that metrical incoherence is rare because it is difficult to learn. In Southern Pomo, this difficulty appears to have caused grammatical competition and restructuring: a second pattern of syncope, occurring in only a limited context, suggests that learners have reanalysed the grammar as having consistent metrical structure across the derivation. This work thus supports the proposal that diachronic change – and therefore typology – is constrained by extragrammatical factors.