LINGUIST List 16.456

Tue Feb 15 2005

Diss: Morphology: Stewart: 'Mutation as Morphology ...'

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1. Thomas Stewart, Mutation as Morphology: Bases, Stems, and Shapes in Scottish Gaelic

Message 1: Mutation as Morphology: Bases, Stems, and Shapes in Scottish Gaelic

Date: 14-Feb-2005
From: Thomas Stewart <tstewart

truman.edu>
Subject: Mutation as Morphology: Bases, Stems, and Shapes in Scottish Gaelic

Institution: Ohio State University
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2004

Author: Thomas Stewart

Dissertation Title: Mutation as Morphology: Bases, Stems, and Shapes in Scottish Gaelic

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology

Subject Language(s): Gaelic, Scots (GLS)
Language Family(ies): Insular Celtic

Dissertation Director:
Brian D. Joseph

Dissertation Abstract:

The description of initial consonant mutations in the Celtic languages has
frequently been attempted. Theoretical treatments have tended to focus on
either the phonological aspects of the alternations or the syntactic
aspects of distribution. Both of these perspectives, however, leave the
topic incompletely covered. On the one hand, there is no reliable
synchronic phonetic conditioning generally to be found in the modern Celtic
languages. On the other, the syntactic conditions are not unified and
frequently make reference to strictly local, rather than hierarchical,
relations between 'triggers', which seem to condition the mutations, and
'targets', the word or words which actually instantiate the particular
mutations. Attempts to bridge the theoretical gap directly by means of a
so-called 'syntax-phonology interface' consistently miss the functions of
the mutations as part of word formation, i.e. the morphological function of
mutations.

This dissertation treats consonant mutation in Scottish Gaelic (SG) as a
set of morphological processes, operative in relating one lexeme to
another, a lexeme to its various inflected word-forms, and word-forms to
particular shapes of those word-forms required by particular syntactic
constructions or collocations. In this way, mutations are shown to be
deeply integrated in the realizational and demarcative morphological
systems of SG. Mutations are used in constellations of functions that are
characterized by partial formal generalizations, and so they are unified
only abstractly.

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