Dimensions of Variation in Multi-Pattern Reduplication
Creators: name: Spaelti, Philip
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 1997

description: This dissertation investigates the special phonology of reduplication. The main thesis is that all special aspects of reduplication phonology that disrupt identity between base and reduplicant, are the result of Emergence of the Unmarked (McCarthy &amp; Prince 1994). Phenomena that are investigated include: partial reduplication, infixing reduplication, affix-polarity reversal, and fixed segmentism, among others. Some particular claims areas follows. Partial reduplication can be explained as the emergence of rhythmic (i.e.,stress) constraints, which impose a size restriction on the reduplicant. This analysis takes the basic approach of Generalized Template Theory(McCarthy &amp; Prince 1994, Urbancyzk 1995), but takes it further, dispensing not only with prosodic templates, but also with other morphological stipulations such as the need for 'empty' morphemes and the attendant templatic constraints. Instead partial reduplication is explained directly through the action of structure minimizing, and alignment constraints. For example syllable reduplication can be accounted for through the constraint All-Syllable-Edge, while heavy syllable (CVC) reduplication is the result of simultaneous foot and syllable size requirements. Infixing reduplication, which places the reduplicant before the main stress, can be understood as reduplication maximizing distinctness across forms by seeking the least marked base. Infixing reduplication is analyzed as an interaction between Max-BR and size restrictions, which results in a 'back-copying' effect. The analysis explains why this type of infixation is common with reduplication, but virtually non-existant with standard affixes. Reduplication which switches affix-polarity shows that the account of 'Marantz's generalization' (i.e., the fact that reduplication copies' outside-in') must be separated from the account of the directionality of affixation. The main evidence for these positions comes from languages where more than one pattern of reduplication is found. It is argued that in such cases the patterns must be analyzed as a single system. Two types of systems are distinguished. In one type, the patterns are DUPLEMES, meaning they are contrastive, and a single word can show more than one reduplication pattern. In another type of system, the patterns are ALLODUPLES, meaning they are in complementary distribution, and the conditioning of their distribution is often phonological. Three systems of the second type are analyzed in detail.Nakanai has a large number of reduplication patterns, which fill up exactly the available pattern space. The choice of pattern is shown to be the result of sonority maximization, and the avoidance of marked structures. The Aru languages, West Tarangan and Kola, infix the reduplicant immediately before the main stress. The analysis shows this to result from the interaction of Max-BR, size restrictions, and affix alignment.Variation in the ranking of the constraints gives a typology of systems,all attested in various Aru dialects. One peculiar pattern that is explained by this analysis is syllable recycling, a type of reduplication,where a single consonant is copied as a coda to a preceding syllable. Mangap-Mbula has a form of reduplication that switches between prefixing and suffixing reduplication. This variation can be shown to be the result of the interaction between reduplication and the stress system of the language.