Aspects Of The Morphology And Phonology Of Konni

This study combines a descriptive and theoretical presentation of Kɔnni, a Gur language of northern Ghana. It presents an Optimality Theory analysis of the entire phonological system. The descriptions are separated from the formal analyses in order to facilitate use by both descriptivists and theoreticians.Morphology is described, including the noun class system, reduplicative agentive nouns, noun-adjective complexes, nominal derivations, and various verbal aspectual suffixes. Major sections are included on consonants, vowels, and tone. The volume also includes a brief syntax sketch, co occurrence restrictions, phoneme frequency counts, measurements of segment durations and vowel formants, and seven appendices of data. Selected notes of interest:? Some phonology is limited to only certain noun classes.' The 9-vowel ATR vowel system and diphthongization are integrally related.' Certain vowels assimilate only across consonants having the same place feature. ? Tonal perturbations require four different underlying representations for different nouns which have a surface [LH] tone.' True tonal polarity is distinct from dissimilation.' Two cases of syntax-phonology interface are demonstrated.Michael Cahill (Ph.D., linguistics, The Ohio State University, 1999) has been with SIL since 1982, and worked on site with Kɔnni speakers from 1986 to 1993. He was a member of the LSA's Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation from 2001-2003, chairing it in 2003. He is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Texas at Arlington and of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics and is currently based in Dallas as the International Linguistics Coordinator of SIL.

A collection of overviews of approaches to the formal expression of information structure in natural language and its interaction with general principles of human cognition and communication.

Reviews and debates the latest theoretical approaches to evaluative morphology

This comprehensive textbook provides a clearly organized introduction to tone and tonal phonology.

From the physiology and acoustics to their patterning across human languages, tone is one of the fundamental constructs in human languages that is also among the hardest to apprehend. Drawing upon a large number of languages around the world, this volume explores the concept of tone starting from its physical properties of articulation and acoustics to its manifestation in phonology. Designed as a comprehensive study accessible to the novice and useful for the expert, each chapter covers a particular aspect of tone in increasing depth and complexity, weaving together key concepts and theories that provide complementing or competing accounts of tone's phonological intricacies. In the process, one uncovers the underlying laws and principles that inform today's understanding of the subject to form a more synthesized view that also allows us to explore the relation of tone to other important areas of humanity such as literature, history, music and cognition.

Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session

Despite earlier work by Trubetzkoy, Jakobson and Greenberg, phonological typology is often underrepresented in typology textbooks. At the same time, most phonologists do not see a difference between phonological typology and cross-linguistic (formal) phonology. The purpose of this book is to bring together leading scholars to address the issue of phonological typology, both in terms of the unity and the diversity of phonological systems.