Phrasal phonology in Copperbelt Bemba*. Issue 1 (3rd August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kula, Nancy C.; Bickmore, Lee S.
• Is Part Of: Phonology. Volume 32:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 147
• Page End: 176
• Publication Date: 2015-08-03
• Subjects: Grammar, Comparative and general -- Phonology -- Periodicals; 414.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S095267571500007X
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0952-6757

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Copperbelt Bemba exhibits several rightward spreading tonal processes which are sensitive to prosodic phrase structure. The rightmost H tone in a word will undergo unbounded spreading if the word is final in a phonological phrase (φ). In an intonational phrase consisting of several single-word φ's, the rightmost H in the first word will spread through all following toneless φ's. From a rule-based perspective, this can only be accounted for by positing mutually feeding iterative rules, as a single H-tone spreading rule cannot account for the long-distance spreading. Rather, a second rule that spreads a H from the final mora of one word onto the initial mora of the following word is required, as a bridge to further unbounded spreading. Three phrase-sensitive OT constraints are proposed to account for H-tone spreading between words. One is of the domain-juncture variety, requiring the specification of two separate prosodic domains.</p> </abstract>