CARP Affix Ordering: Problematic in Lubukusu

Hyman and Mchombo (1992), Babye (1985), (Myers 1987), (Rice 2000), and Hyman (2002 & 2003) have shown that there is affix ordering in Proto-Bantu languages that obeys the 'CARP' (Causative-Applicative-Reciprocal-Passive template). Drawing data from Lubukusu, a Bantu language, the current study analyzes affix ordering of class-changing morphemes, arguing against the templatic morphology that most researchers have shown to be dominant in Bantu languages. The current study uses Bybee’s (1985) principle of iconicity (principle of relevance), where it is proposed that affixes closer to the verb stem are more 'relevant' to the verb than to the rest of the sentence and those affixes further away are less relevant. Based on Baybee’s relevance principle, the study argues that there are various affix ordering orders in Lubukusu, which are semantically motivated. The data that are used in the analyses are self-generated and verified by three native Lubukusu speakers who are competent in the language. Findings show that as much as Lubukusu obeys the templatic morphology, the same is violated in various morpho-semantic contexts. The study recommends more studies on affix ordering in the Lubukusu language based on other existing frameworks that have been tested on languages rather than those from the proto Bantu family.

Templatic Morphology (Clippings, Word-and-Pattern)

This article introduces two phenomena that are studied within the domain of templatic morphology—clippings and word-and-pattern morphology, where the latter is usually associated with Semitic morphology. In both cases, the words are of invariant shape, sharing a prosodic structure defined in terms of number of syllables. This prosodic template, being the core of the word structure, is often accompanied with one or more of the following properties: syllable structure, vocalic pattern, and an affix. The data in this article, drawn from different languages, display the various ways in which these structural properties are combined to determine the surface structure of the word. The invariant shape of Japanese clippings (e.g., suto ← sutoraiki ‘strike’) consists of a prosodic template alone, while that of English hypocoristics (e.g., Trudy ← Gertrude) consists of a prosodic template plus the suffix -i. The Arabic verb classes, such as class-I (e.g., sakan ‘to live’) and class-II (e.g., misek ‘to hold’), display a prosodic template plus a vocalic pattern, and the Hebrew verb class-III (e.g., hivdil ‘to distinguish’) displays a prosodic template, a vocalic pattern and a prefix. Given these structural properties, the relation between a base and its derived form is expressed in terms of stem modification, which involves truncation (for the prosodic template) and melodic overwriting (for the vocalic pattern). The discussion in this article suggests that templatic morphology is not limited to a particular lexicon type – core or periphery, but it displays different degrees of restrictiveness.

Templates as the interaction of recursive word structure and prosodic well-formedness

Templatic morphology involves the appearance of a fixed shape on a morpheme in a specific morphological context. This paper makes two claims: the morphological context of a template is syntactically cyclic, resulting in recursive prosodic word structure, and the shape of a template results from prosodic well-formedness conditions on the internal prosodic word. Templatic morphology in Chukchansi Yokuts illustrates these claims: affixes that trigger templates transfer the root to the phonology before other material is transferred, so that the root forms a prosodic word which is internal to the whole word. Roots with one underlying vowel are augmented to meet a disyllabic minimality requirement on prosodic words; the resulting disyllable forms a light–heavy iamb, to optimally satisfy Chukchansi parsing requirements. Templatic morphology falls out from the predictable interaction of the syntax–phonology interface and general phonological properties of a language, and needs no special apparatus or diacritics.

An Analysis of Verbal Extensions in Malawian Tonga: Towards Mirror Principle and Templatic Morphology

The question on affix ordering is among the central concerns in morphological analyses of Bantu languages, with most studies drawing insights from Mirror Principle and Templatic Morphology theoretical underpinnings. However, it remains debatable to a larger extent on whether conclusions drawn from such studies can be extended to all languages with agglutinative morphological structures. This study was carried out to examine the structure of suffix ordering in Malawian Tonga by examining the two theories. On morpheme co-occurrence, the study reveals that causatives and applicatives, as argument-structure increasing suffixes, should always precede other extensions which are argument-structure reducing suffixes in order to be consistent with the tenets of the two theories. However, there are some observable cases where prescriptions of these theories breed ungrammatical structures in Tonga.

Cyclic Agreement and Empty Slots in Pazar Laz

This paper discusses the compatibility of templatic morphology and cyclic agreement on verbal agreement prefixes in Pazar Laz. It is based on templatic morphology and introduces the following questions: Can agreement slots on verbal agreement remain empty through the steps of derivation? Is there insertion of a dummy element in cases when arguments are deficient in terms of agreement The organization of the paper is as the following: It first introduces the relevant background information about templatic morphology and then, it presents data from Pazar Laz to show that it has a templatic morphology on verbs. In section 3 we propose a cyclic agreement model based on Bejar and Rezac (2009) and discuss with relevant data. Section 4 summarizes and concludes the paper.