'Word Structure in Ngalakgan' : Abstract
This work represents the first monograph devoted to a description and analysis of the word-level prosody of an Australian language, Ngalakgan, based on extensive fieldwork with speakers. Ngalakgan has a polysynthetic agglutinative word structure, a structure which is reflected at the surface in systematic correspondences between morphemes and prosodic domains, as well as in segmental effects such as neutralisation, gemination, and laryngealisation. Moreover, morphemes in Ngalakgan are not all of a kind; we find evidence for five types of morpheme: WORD-level stem, WORD-level affix, WORD-level clitic, ROOT, and ROOT-level affix; each with distinct morpho-prosodic and morpho-semantic characteristics. The evidence of Ngalakgan implies that internal morphological structure is not erased, at least not for the purposes of prosody. We discuss further evidence from the interpretation of words, and from phonetic performance, which support the claim that words have internal structure for speakers.
Analysis of the data is couched in 'Optimality Theory' (OT), a constraint-based formal phonological model. The recognition of distinct kinds or levels of morphological structure within words at the surface allows us to capture effects formerly attributed to Level-ordering and the Cycle (in Lexical Phonology and Morphology). Since OT does not allow serial derivations, 'cyclic' effects must be captured by recognising word-internal morphological structure. The evidence of Ngalakgan demonstrates that such a recognition is well-founded, and supports other recent work arguing against cyclic derivations.
Ngalakgan also provides evidence of the importance of perceptual constraints on phonological systems. The definition of heavy syllable in Ngalakgan and other languages of this area is unique, and the reverse of that predicted by Moraic Theory. The role of perception has recently proven useful in explaining syllable structure constraints in a wide range of languages. In the case of Ngalakgan, we explore the natural implication of this association between perception and syllable structure: that perceptual constraints derive weight-to-stress effects also. This represents a fundamentally different way of explaining syllable quantity.
thesis.sit, (Stuffit archive)
biblio.rtf, Ch.1.rtf, Ch.2.rtf, Ch.3.rtf, Ch.4.rtf, Ch.5.rtf, Ch.6.rtf, contents.rtf, title.page.rtf, (RTFiles: should work with PCs)
biblio.doc, Ch.1.doc, Ch.2.doc, Ch.3.doc, Ch.4.doc, Ch.5.doc, Ch.6.doc, contents.doc, Ngalakgan_map.gif, title.page.doc. (MacWord 6 files)
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