The morphological and phonological structures of Spokane lexemes

The primary purpose of this study is to specify the structural characteristics of the phonological representations of Spokane lexemes which are relevant for the rules of the morphology and the rules of the phonology. In order to reveal the complexity of the issue of structure, it is necessary to examine three sets of data: non-compound forms, compound forms, and structurally reanalyzed forms. These data provide evidence that the phonological representation of each lexeme includes specifications for both form and structure. Framed within the Lexeme-Morpheme Base Morphology of Beard (1987, 1993, 1995), this study establishes that certain morphological spelling operations necessarily refer to a specific sub-string of the phonological representation which cannot be isolated phonologically. The phonological representations of Spokane lexemes are, therefore, analyzed as composite structures. As such, the phonological representations of non-compounds possess (at least potentially) complex morphological structure which includes the notions Root and Stem, while those of compounds possess additional specifications for structure based on the fact that each comprises two distinct Stems. Conversely, the structurally reanalyzed forms provide evidence that historically complex structure has been reduced to simplex form. Structurally reanalyzed forms possess morphological structures which are identical to that of the non-compound but which are distinct from that of their historically related forms. This study also establishes that the structural characteristics of a lexeme’s phonological representation remain salient for the phonology. It is demonstrated that the domains of the phonological representation to which the phonology attends are isomorphic with the domains of the phonological representation which emerge from the Morphological Spelling component (at least at the lowest level of structure). I utilize the facts of primary stress assignment, as well as the facts of retraction and nasal shift, to provide evidence for such phonological structures and. further, to specify the parameters of primary stress assignment in Spokane.

Author dc:creator

• Black, Deirdre Jean

Advisor dc:contributor.supervisor

• Carlson, Barry F.

• Spokane language
• Morphology
• Phonology

Statement dc:rights

• Available to the World Wide Web

Language dc:language.iso

en, English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1828/9805

OAI record oai:identifier

https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Adspace.library.uvic.ca%3A1828%2F9805