Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

This paper analyzes two patterns of number marking in the DP in Nez Perce (Sahaptian) within the framework of Distributed Morphology. The first involves under-realization of plural on nouns. Number has classically been understood as a feature inherent to nouns, rather than to adjectives that modify them. In Nez Perce, however, only a small set of nouns show number morphology, whereas number morphology is highly productive on adjectival modifiers. Adjectives in fact may realize the plural more than once per word—an instance of multiple exponence. I show that the puzzle of under-...

In this paper I survey verb extensions within different Bantoid languages and subgroups, comparing them to Cameroonian Bantu zone A. Extending my survey of Niger-Congo extensions (Hyman 2007), I show that there is a band of contiguous languages in the Grassfields area where a number of contrastive verb extensions have relative productivity (cf. the studies in Idiata & Mba 2003). Interestingly, the languages in question belong to several subgroups: Limbum (NE Eastern Grassfields Bantu), Noni (Beboid), Kom and Babanki (Ring Western Grassfields Bantu), Bafut and Mankon (Ngemba...

In this paper I present a detailed analysis of the tonology of nouns and their dependents within the noun phrase in Lusoga, a Bantu language of Uganda. After considering different alternatives, I argue that Lusoga is best analyzed with an underlying privative /L/ which derives from an earlier *H, realized directly in Luganda, the closest related language to Lusoga. To establish the basic system I start with infinitives (which are nouns), then analyze the different tone patterns on nouns of different sizes and shapes, with and without an augment, simple and reduplicated. I then turn...