| This dissertation examines the phonology and morphology of the Bantu language Shimakonde. An examination of the patterns of hiatus resolution reveals that predictions made by a theory of phonological timing do not reflect a universal account of V-V sequences. Namely, a prevocalic mid vowel undergoes Glide Formation just like a prevocalic high vowel does, and Glide Formation is obligatory in the penult, and optional before the penult. The position-induced optional Glide Formation introduces a new pattern of V-V resolution which has not been documented yet. The bases for optional Glide Formation are not clear, so this fact requires further investigation.;Second, this dissertation deals with unfamiliar process of stress-induced phonological vowel reduction in a typically Bantu tone language. In Shimakonde, both short mid vowels /e, o/ and long mid vowels [ee, oo] derived from /a+e/ and /a+o/, respectively, reduce to [a] in unstressed syllables. Reduction interacts with V-V resolution and also with harmony, and reduction should apply after V-V resolution creates long vowels. Harmony feeds into reduction, and reduction makes harmony to be opaque. Furthermore, there is a restriction in the pattern of reduction when this process involves a sequence of contiguous reducible vowels. This restriction requires that vowel reduction applies to a vowel beginning at one point from the left edge of the stem to the right, and once the rule stops applying, it cannot restart applying again. Acoustic measurements and perceptual test show that the surface [a] derived from reduction of mid vowels is indistinguishable phonetically from the surface stressed vowel [a].;Finally, this dissertation examines phonological rules that apply at the phrase level. This study is the first to examine structures involving a noun before multiple modifiers. All current theories of syntax-phonology interaction predict correctly, that a noun and a modifier phrase together phonologically, if the two words are within the same maximal projection, i.e. the syntactic constituent XP. Shimakonde shows that the combination of a noun before multiple modifiers triggers the same phonological changes which apply to a noun before a single modifier. Surprisingly these phonological changes also apply to a modifier before another modifier. Phrasal phonological rules apply to two elements even if they are in separate clauses. I propose an account which claims that a phonological rule applies between two words if the trigger and the target words are bounded within the same NP, and any relevant phrasal phonological rule applies to elements which are contained in different XP constituents. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
