Tier-based locality in Armenian conjugation classes: Relativized adjacency in long-distance allomorphy
Hossep Dolatian, Peter Guekguezian
October 2021 

Linguistic processes tend to respect locality constraints cross-linguistically. In this paper, we analyze the distribution of conjugation classes in Armenian verbs. We analyze a type of Tense/agreement allomorphy which applies across these classes. On the surface, we show that this allomorphy is long-distant. Specifically, it is sensitive to the interaction of multiple morphemes that are neither linearly nor structurally adjacent. However, we argue that this allomorphy respects ‘relativized adjacency’ (Toosarvandani 2016) or tier-based locality (Aksënova et al. 2016). While not surface-local, the interaction in Armenian verbs is local on a tier projected from morphological features. This formal property of tier-based locality is substantively manifested as phase-based locality in Armenian (cf. Marvin 2002). In addition to being well-studied computationally, tier-based locality allows us to capture superficially non-local morphological processes while respecting the cross-linguistic tendency of locality. We speculate that tier-based locality is a cross-linguistic tendency in long-distance allomorphy, while phase-based locality is not necessarily so. [ ** Current title is: Relativized locality: Phases and tiers in long-distance allomorphy in Armenian ** ]

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/005590 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Linguistic Inquiry
keywords:	phase, theme vowel, tier, allomorphy, locality, morphologically-conditioned allomorphy, phase-based locality, tier-based locality, locality domains, long-distance allomorphy
previous versions:	v2 [March 2021] v1 [November 2020]
Downloaded:	813 times

 

[ edit this article | back to article list ]