Speaker: Nicholas Rolle
Title:“Grammatical tone and current linguistic theory”
Time: Wednesday, Feb 7th, 12:30pm – 2:00pm and Thursday, Feb 8th, 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract:
This mini-course examines “grammatical tone” (GT), defined as a tone alternation occurring in a restricted grammatical context, which targets a non-restricted class of morphemes or constructions, and as such functions to express linguistic meaning. While GT is rare in Asia, it is omnipresent in other tonal zones such as Africa and Central America. We shall take the wealth of GT patterns and situate them within current theory, centered around several themes. These include (1) abstractness – the role of representational abstractness in debating item-based vs. process-based approaches to GT, (2) constituency – the domains within which GT patterns operate and their relation to general prosodic constituency formation, and (3) modularity – the impact of syntax in constraining GT typology and implications for the modular separation of syntax and phonology.