Non-linear Blocking Effects on Suppletive Allomorphy

Ömer Demirok

doi:10.18492/dad.804477

EN TR

Non-linear Blocking Effects on Suppletive Allomorphy

Abstract

It has been widely observed that suppletive allomorphy (e.g., better blocking *good+er in English) respects some form of locality; however, it is still debated if the relevant metric of locality needs to be stated in linear terms or structural terms (Embick, 2010; Bobaljik, 2012; cf. Moskal and Smith, 2015). This study contributes to this debate by investigating the root allomorphy patterns in Laz, an endangered South Caucasian language spoken primarily in Turkey. In each case of root allomorphy in Laz, the root is required to be linearly adjacent to the morpheme that conditions the allomorphy. Moreover, Laz exhibits (what will be called) non-linear blocking effects on allomorphy: Some prefixes can prevent a suffix from conditioning allomorphy on the root. Importantly, this case constitutes evidence that linear adjacency is not a sufficient condition on suppletive allomorphy and is at odds with the view that the domain of grammar responsible for selecting exponents operates on linearized structures (cf. Embick, 2010).

Keywords

Değişken Altbiçimlenmeye Çizgilesellik-dışı Engeller

Öz

Değişken altbiçimlenmenin (örn: İngilizcede better sözcüğünün *good+er biçimini engellemesi), bir çeşit yerellik ilkesine uyduğu yaygın olarak gözlemlenmiştir. Fakat, bu yerellik ilkesinin çizgisel (İng. linear) mi yapısal mı olduğu tartışmaya açıktır (Embick, 2010; Bobaljik, 2012; cf. Moskal and Smith, 2015). Bu çalışma, en çok Türkiye’de konuşulan tehlike altındaki Güney Kafkas dili Lazcada, kökte altbiçimlenme örneklerini inceleyerek bu tartışmaya katkı sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Lazcadaki her kökte altbiçimlenme durumunda, kökün altbiçimlenmesini koşullayan biçimbirimle kök bitişik olmak zorundadır. Ayrıca, Lazca değişken altbiçimlenmede çizgisellik-dışı engelleme olarak adlandırılacak kısıtlar göstermektedir: Bir önek, bir sonekin kökte altbiçimbirim koşullamasını engelleyebilmektedir. Önemli olarak, bu tip örnekler değişken altbiçimlenmenin uyduğu yerellik ilkesinin salt çizgisel bitişiklik olamayacağına dair kanıt sunmaktadır ve dilbilgisi modelinde biçimbirim seçiminden sorumlu birimin çizgiselleştirilmiş yapılar üzerinde işlem yaptığı fikriyle uyumlu değildir (cf. Embick, 2010).

Anahtar Kelimeler

References

Acquaviva, Paolo (2009). Roots and lexicality in Distributed Morphology. In York-Essex Morphology Meeting 2, (pp. 1-21), York: University of York.
Bobaljik, Jonathan D. (2000). The Ins and Outs of Contextual Allomorphy. University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics, 10, 35-71.
Bobaljik, Jonathan D. (2012). Universals in Comparative Morphology: Suppletion,superlatives and the structure of words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bonet, Eulàlia & Harbour, Daniel (2012). Contextual allomorphy. In Trommer, Jochen (Ed.), The morphology and phonology of exponence, (pp. 195–235)., Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Božič, Jurij (2017). Non-Local Allomorphy in a Strictly Local System, Ms. McGill University.
Božič, Jurij (2018). Generalizations on Root Suppletion: Motivating a Theory of Contextual Allomorphy. In Proceedings of the 35th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, (pp. 114-123), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Caha, Pavel. (2009). The Nanosyntax of Case. Doctoral dissertation, University of Tromsø, Tromsø.
Caha, Pavel, Karen DeClercq, & Guido Vanden Wyngaerd. (2019). The Fine Structure of the Comparative. Studia Linguistica, 73, 470-521

Chomsky, Noam. (2015). Categories and Transformations. In The Minimalist Program, (pp. 201-364), MIT Press.
Demirok, Ömer (2013). AGREE as a unidirectional operation: Evidence from Laz. Master’s thesis, Boğaziçi University, İstanbul.
Demirok, Ömer (2014). The Status of Roots in Event Composition: Laz. Lingue e linguaggio, 2014(1), 83-102
Embick, David. (2010). Localism versus globalism in morphology and phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gouskova, Maria & Jonathan D. Bobaljik. (2019). Allomorphy and vocabulary insertion. Ms. New York University and Harvard University.
Hacquard, Valentine. (2006). Aspects of Modality. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Halle, Morris & Marantz, Alec (1993). Distributed Morphology and the Pieces of Inflection. In The View from Building 20, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, (pp. 111–176)., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Harley, Heidi. (2014). On the identity of roots. Theoretical Linguistics, 40(3-4), 225-276.
Merchant, Jason (2015). How much context is enough? Two cases of spanconditioned stem allomorphy. Linguistic Inquiry, 46(2), 273–303.
Moskal, Beata & Smith, Peter W. (2016). Towards a theory without adjacency: Hypercontextual VI-rules. Morphology, 26, 295-312.
Ostrove, Jason (2018). Stretching, spanning, and linear adjacency in Vocabulary Insertion. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 36, 1263-1289.
Öztürk, Balkız & Pöchtrager, Markus (2011). Pazar Laz. LINCOM.
Öztürk, Balkız (2013). Low, high and higher applicatives. In Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 197, (pp. 275–296), John Benjamins.
Pylkkänen, Liina. (2002). Introducing Arguments. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Siddiqi, Daniel (2009). Syntax within the word: Economy, allomorphy and argument seletion in Distributed Morphology. John Benjamins.
Smith, Peter W., Beata Moskal, Ting Xu, Jungmin Kang, & Jonathan D. Bobaljik (2018). Case and number suppletion in pronouns. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 37, 1029-1101.
von Stechow, Arnim & Beck, Sigrid (2015). Events, times and worlds - An LF architecture. In Situationsargumente im Nominalbereich, (pp. 13–46)., De Gruyter.
Svenonius, Peter (2012). Spanning. Ms., CASTL/University of Tromsø.
Weisser, Phillipp (2019). Telling allomorphy from agreement. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1), 86.
Zeijlstra, Hedde. (2007). Negation in Natural Language: On the Form and Meaning of Negative Elements. Language and Linguistics Compass, 1, 498-518

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

-

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Ömer Demirok ^*
0000-0002-2536-5247
Türkiye

Publication Date

December 31, 2021

Submission Date

October 2, 2020

Acceptance Date

August 17, 2021

Published in Issue

Year 2021 Volume: 32 Number: 2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.804477

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA45MW55KK

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Demirok, Ö. (2021). Non-linear Blocking Effects on Suppletive Allomorphy. Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 32(2), 83-109. https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.804477

Cited By

On the emergence of inflection classes

Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi

https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.1192280