Speaker: Laura McPherson
Title: Morphological distance and optional harmony in Tommo So
Location: 32D-831
Time: Monday, Oct 24, 5:00pm
Tommo So (Dogon, Mali) has two harmony processes: backness harmony and ATR harmony, which are both exceptionless in stems. Stem harmony is gradiently correlated with the order of derivational and inflectional suffixes. Broadly, the propensity to harmonize decreases as we move away from the stem, with a range of obligatory harmony, followed by optional harmony, followed by no harmony; backness harmony shuts off more quickly than ATR harmony. The range of optional backness harmony further breaks down into different rates of harmony, with a set of suffixes harmonizing 90% of the time, followed by a suffix with 35% harmony, followed by a suffix with 7%, again correlating with distance from the stem, which is measured in abstract morphological distance based on affix ordering, not on phonological distance. This talk addresses issues of optionality, gradience, and opacity in the system, suggesting an analysis of vowel harmony based on lexical access and decomposition.