Phonological Argumentation - Essays on Evidence and Motivation - Steve Parker
10 Infixation as morpheme absorption
Phonological Argumentation - Essays on Evidence and Motivation - Steve Parker
Ania Łubowicz
University of Southern California
Description
This chapter examines data from the languages Palauan and Akkadian where identical infixes and prefixes respond differently to feature cooccurrence restrictions (OCP). In both languages, OCP is enforced on the root domain. While prefixes are not subject to OCP, identical infixes need to conform to OCP restrictions. To explain the asymmetry between identical infixes and prefixes, it is proposed that infixes are part of the root morpheme in the output while prefixes are outside of the root domain. Infixes become part of the output root morpheme via a process of what is here referred to as morpheme absorption. Empirical consequences of this proposal are explored.