LINGUIST List 20.539

Thu Feb 19 2009

Diss: Lang Documentation/Morphology/Syntax: Kim: 'Topics in the ...'

Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter <evelynlinguistlist.org>


        1.    Yuni Kim, Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of San Francisco del Mar Huave


Message 1: Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of San Francisco del Mar Huave
Date: 19-Feb-2009
From: Yuni Kim <yuni.kimmanchester.ac.uk>
Subject: Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of San Francisco del Mar Huave
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Institution: University of California, Berkeley Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2008

Author: Yuni Kim

Dissertation Title: Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of San Francisco del Mar Huave

Dissertation URL: http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/yuni.kim/papers.html

Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation                             Morphology                             Phonology
Subject Language(s): Huave, San Francisco del Mar (hue)
Dissertation Director:
Sharon Inkelas
Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation is a study of the phonology and morphology of Huave(language isolate), based on the author's fieldwork on the endangeredvariety of San Francisco del Mar, Oaxaca.

Chapter 1 (Introduction) gives a typological overview and briefly describesthe sociolinguistic situation. Chapter 2 (Phonology) discusses allphonological patterns and phenomena encountered to date, including thedistribution and realization of the plain vs. palatalized contrast onconsonants; fusion, dissimilation, and deletion processes associated withglottal fricatives; glide-vowel alternations; and loanword phonology.Chapter 3 (Diphthongization) proposes a unified analysis of variousdiphthongization processes and relates them to the realization ofpalatalization, while also elaborating on the subsegmental representationsof vowels and consonants. In Chapter 4 (Vowel Harmony), 'sour grapes'patterns of copy and blocking in the vowel harmony system are analyzedusing Agreement by Correspondence (Hansson 2001, Rose and Walker 2004),which is argued to be superior to an autosegmental spreading approach.

Chapter 5 (Morphological Overview) gives an overview of word classes andbasic morphological structure, highlighting areas where morphological andsyntactic criteria for word class membership do not coincide. Functionwords, including a complex system of articles and demonstratives, are alsopresented briefly. Chapter 6 (Verbal Morphology) describes verbal personand number inflection, tense/aspect categories and nonfinite verb forms,morphophonological derivation processes, and a diverse array ofvalence-changing operations. Throughout, differences in the behavior oftransitive and intransitive verbs are contrasted with split-intransitivityeffects in stem formation. Finally, Chapter 7 (Mobile Affixes and AffixOrder) analyzes verbal affix ordering, which is complicated by 'mobileaffixes' (Noyer 1993) that surface as prefixes or suffixes depending oncontext. The abstract hierarchical structure of the verb is worked out, andthe linear placement of mobile affixes within these hierarchicalconstraints is argued to be phonologically conditioned.