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Markedness and dominance in the ATR harmony system of Diola-Fogny
| Content Provider | Scilit |
|---|---|
| Author | Casali, Roderic F. |
| Copyright Year | 2018 |
| Abstract | Diola-Fogny is a well-known example of a tongue root harmony language with assimilatory dominance of [+ATR] vowels. Less well known, however, are some asymmetries involving the frequency and distribution of [+ATR] and [-ATR] vowels. In addition to being dominant, [+ATR] vowels are subject to restrictions on their occurrence in certain classes of function words and affixes and occur with far lower overall frequency than [-ATR] vowels. In essence, they pattern like a marked sound class. This paper focuses on some implications of these findings for a theoretical topic of interest: markedness relations involving tongue root features. The Diola-Fogny patterns conform quite well to the expectations of a traditional understanding of featural markedness, which equates the dominant value of a feature with the marked one. They are problematic, however, for a widely assumed view of tongue root markedness relations that treats [-ATR] as universally marked in high vowels. Under this view, marked patterning of all [+ATR] vowels (including high [+ATR] [i], [u]) is unexpected. I show that such patterning is intelligible in a framework in which markedness has a representational basis and in which [+ATR] quality is represented by a privative feature [ATR]. |
| Related Links | http://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/jall.2018.39.issue-2/jall-2018-0008/jall-2018-0008.xml |
| Ending Page | 239 |
| Page Count | 39 |
| Starting Page | 201 |
| ISSN | 01676164 |
| e-ISSN | 16133811 |
| DOI | 10.1515/jall-2018-0008 |
| Journal | Journal of African Languages and Linguistics |
| Issue Number | 2 |
| Volume Number | 39 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
| Publisher Date | 2018-11-06 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Journal of African Languages and Linguistics Language Studies Diola-fogny Atr Harmony [+atr] Dominance Markedness Privative Features Journal: Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, Vol- 39 |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
| Subject | Linguistics and Language |
