Lexical phonology and morphology of the Ciyao verb stem

Abstract

In this study we have presented an analysis of the major phonological and morphological properties of the Ciyao verb stem. In this chapter we summarize these findings by chapter. Thus, following the introductory chapter 1, in chapter 2 we discussed the vowel processes and demonstrated that vowel length is not only underlying, but can also be generated phonologically when the structural descriptions are met. In this chapter, we also demonstrated that vowel harmony, as a major characteristic of the verb stem, determines the quality of the vowels that must follow each other not only across morphemes (stem-intemally) but also within the root (morpheme-internally). In chapter 3 we investigated consonant processes, where we pinpointed three segments (two consonants and one vowel) that play a major role in determining the surface segmental phonology of the language: (i) the moraic nasal, which voices a following voiceless consonant, deletes a voiced consonant and undergoes effacement before /s/ in verbs and before Is/and /w/ in nouns; (ii) the syllabic nasal, which hardens the labial approximants and nasalizes the lingual approximants; and (iii) the high front vowel /i/ which affects the surface realization of some consonants. When it occurs in the initial position of perfective markers, it palatalizes velars and fricativizes the lateral approximant; as a causative allomorph, it fricativizes all linguals and deletes the oral labials in some verbs. In chapter 4 we classified and discussed the different kinds of verb stems, which includes the simplex stem, derived stem (from verb to verb and from other parts of speech to verb), reduplicated stem, and inflectional stem. This classification was another major contribution of this study to the understanding of the verb structure in Ciyao. In chapter 5, we discussed the derivational suffixes known as verb extensions in the Bantu literature, showing that while the semantics of two extensions (impositive and intensive) is apparently "transparent", the same can not be said about the other extensions. Thus, we investigated the semantic intricacy of the applicatives before locatives, the threecausatives, the two passives, the stative, the three reciprocals, and the two reversives. In chapter 6 we investigated the order and combination of the different verb to verb derivational suffixes, or verb extensions, where we demonstrated that the combination of the derivational suffixes is determined by the following four linguistic factors: (a) morphotactics; (b) semantics; (c) phonotactics; and (d) morphosyntax. Finally, in chapter 7 we discussed the inflectional stem where we showed that the perfective suffix -il-e can either be attached to the final segment of the root or its formative -il- can be infixed in the verb root between the final consonant of the base (root or derived stem) and the preceding vowel, a process known as imbrication. The option to use one or the otherform of affixation of the perfective marker depends upon the size of the base and the number of moras of the last syllable of the base. Based on the analysis of the irregular perfective formation we argued for the representation of the perfective marker as -('V)Vl/t-V (where V is a front vowel) which surfaces as: (a) -il-e; (b) -(i)il-i/-(e)el-i: -(i)it-/ -(e)et-e. The distribution of the allomorphs in (b) and (c) is determined by height harmony. The allomorphs of the perfective marker occur in the final position of the inflectional stem in completive forms, which is marked by zero. When the incompletive marker-ga is affixed, it occupies the final position, its permanent location in the inflectional stem. To handle the various morphophonological facts that characterize the verb stem as we have summarized here, we used the framework of Lexical Phonology and Morphology (Kiparsky 1985, Mohanan 1982 and others) as well as moraic theory (Hyman 1985, Hayes 1989 and others). We hope in the future to apply this research experience to other Bantu languages, especially those spoken in Mozambique