The Nzema Verbal Phrase: An Optimality Theoretic Account
Main Article Content
Abstract
An optimality-theoretic (OT) approach to the phonology of the verbal phrase in Nzema, a Niger-Congo language, is presented. The analysis accounts for ATR harmony spreading from roots to prefixes, nasal homorganicity in nasal-obstruent clusters, and the opacity found in assimilation in nasal-obstruent clusters. ATR is assumed to be specified in the input on certain vowels in certain roots and then spread leftward onto verbal prefixes. A combination of constraints on association line linking and delinking and an alignment constraint to account for spreading provides a relatively straightforward account of the ATR harmony.The case of nasal homorganicity in nasal-obstruent clusters is also relatively straightforward from an OT perspective. A pair of faithfulness constraints ranked with respect to a constraint requiring place features to be shared by the components of a cluster are sufficient to account for most of the data. An additional positional faithfulness constraint on onsets is required to account for homorganicity in nasal-nasal clusters. Finally, individual faithfulness constraints and a conjoined faithfulness constraint are among those used to account for the assimilation of obstruents to nasals in voicing (in the case of voiceless obstruents) and in nasality (in the case of voiced obstruents).
Downloads
Article Details
The Indiana University Linguistics Club Working Papers (the "Publisher") and Author(s) agree as follows.
1. Publication and Promotion: In consideration of the Publisher's agreement to publish the Work, Author hereby grants and assigns to Publisher the non-exclusive right to print, publish, reproduce, or distribute the Work throughout the world in all means of expression by any method known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. Author further grants Publisher the right to use Author's name in association with the Work in published form and in advertising and promotional materials.
2. Copyright: Copyright of the Work remains in the Author's name.
3. Prior Publication and Attribution: Author agrees not to publish the Work in print form prior to publication of the Work by the Publisher. Author agrees to notify IULCWP before publishing the Work elsewhere.
4. Author Representations: The Author represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author's original Work and that the Author has full power to enter into this Agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property of another; (c) contains no material that is obscene, libelous, or defamatory. Author shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss of expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.
5. Licensing and Reuse: Reuse of the published Work will be governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ). This lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the Work non-commercially; although new works must acknowledge the original IULCWP publication and be non-commercial, they do not have to be licensed on the same terms.