Aspects of Akan grammar and the phonology-syntax interface

Marfo, Charles Ofosu

doi:10.5353/th_b3205356

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Finally, the data presented in this paper extend the analysis of phonological phrasing in Marfo (2005), which is mainly concerned with prosodic restructuring at the level of i's. Marfo claims, on the basis of certain tone rules, that topicalised and focused elements in Akan form separate i's.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonological phrasing and ATR vowel harmony in Akan

Kügler

2015

Phonology

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This paper examines phonological phrasing in the Kwa language Akan. Regressive [+ATR] vowel harmony between words (RVH) serves as a hitherto unreported diagnostic of phonological phrasing. In this paper I discuss VPinternal and NP-internal structures, as well as SVO(O) and serial verb constructions. RVH is a general process in Akan grammar, although it is blocked in certain contexts. The analysis of phonological phrasing relies on universal syntax-phonology mapping constraints whereby lexically headed syntactic phrases are mapped onto phonological phrases. Blocking contexts call for a domain-sensitive analysis of RVH assuming recursive prosodic structure which makes reference to maximal and non-maximal phonological phrases. It is proposed (i) that phonological phrase structure is isomorphic to syntactic structure in Akan, and (ii) that the process of RVH is blocked at the edge of a maximal phonological phrase; this is formulated in terms of a domain-sensitive CRISPEDGE constraint.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonological phrasing and ATR vowel harmony in Akan

Kügler

2015

Phonology

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“…Dolphyne (1988) notes two alternative surface tone realisations in the first compound member (N1) in the Akan compound: i) N1 is said on low (L) tone in some compounds the lexical tone pattern of N1 is maintained in some others. In terms of rule application, I suggest that where N1 is said on L tone, it is due to rule application referred to as H-Deletion following Marfo (2004Marfo ( , 2009. That is, as schematised in 5, with H-Deletion, N1 is rid of its lexical H tone(s) and then pronounced L by default.…”

Section: Structure Of Akan Compoundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One realises that there is an active tonal condition, non-realisation of which N1 fails to undergo H-Deletion. We note this condition as "Word-Edge ( L … H )" following Marfo (2009) and state it in (14).…”

Section: (13)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper focuses on Noun-Noun and Noun-Adjective (respectively notated as N-N and N-Adj) compounds because they are more productive in Akan. As noted by Marfo (2009), also of significance is the fact that the non-noun compound members in the Verb-Verb, Verb-Noun, Adjective-Noun, and Noun-Verb compounds are nominalised before they are compounded. In other words, they become nouns through inflection for nominal prefixe(s) before the compounding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prosody Drives Structure: The Case of Compounds in Akan

Marfo

2016

ILS

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This paper discusses compound constructions in Akan, which are mostly nouns. Compounding is generally explained as a morphosyntactic word-formation process and the resulting compound word is commonly described as a “new” linguistic unit (Haspelmath, 2002; Marfo, 2009). The paper focuses on Noun-Noun (N-N) and Noun-Adjective (N-Adj) compounds in Akan and particularly contends that, for N-N and N-Adj compounds to be realized in Akan, the compound members should map into one prosodic phrase. It is also suggested that the same mapping should be the case if there could be proper or consistent realization of some phonological changes that occur in the compound. In this direction, the paper explains that the syntactic structure of the compound (i.e., the noun phrase (NP)), does not solely ensure the domain of the Akan compound nor the domain properties that trigger the rules that apply in it, but phonological information as well; thus, prosodic constraints are observed. Furthermore, the structure of the Akan compound is illuminated in terms of Attribute-Value Matrix (e.g., Butt & King, 1998). The paper reiterates in conclusion that compounds in Akan and rules that apply in them are better accounted for through dictates of the prosodic structure.

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“…Observe that the stem-initial consonant /dw/ becomes /nw/ in the negated form. This is due to a phonological processMarfo (2009) calls voiced-to-nasal assimilation. With application of voice-to-nasal assimilation, a stem-initial voiced stop becomes a nasal after a nasal prefix with the same specification of the nasal prefix, thus /dw/ becoming /nw/ after /n/.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Morphophonology of the Akan Reduplicated Verb-Form

Marfo

2013

BJLL

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This paper discusses the interaction between constituent formation and alteration of sounds (i.e., morphophonology) in Akan reduplicated verb-forms. Specifically, we strive to look into two issues; the morphology of reduplicated verb stems and how the morphological manifestation(s) affect certain target sounds. With its morphology, we observe that reduplication of the Akan verb-stem is generally total and, through the Morphological Doubling Theory (Inkelas 2005; Inkelas and Zoll 2005), reduplication of Akan verb-stems is viewed as the double (or multiple) occurrence of a morphological constituent meeting a particular morpho-semantic description. That is to say, while there could be differences in structure between the reduplicant and the base, they are subject to a common phonology that determines a resulting shape of an output. With morphophonology, we observe that three issues are relevant in the discussion of the phonology of the reduplicated verbs in Akan. These are the application of vowel harmony, vowel shift in terms of height, and the realization of tonal semblance. Through thorough discussions, the paper finally explains that reduplication of verb-stems in Akan is morphophonologically driven.

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Aspects of Akan grammar and the phonology-syntax interface

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Phonological phrasing and ATR vowel harmony in Akan

Phonological phrasing and ATR vowel harmony in Akan

Prosody Drives Structure: The Case of Compounds in Akan

The Morphophonology of the Akan Reduplicated Verb-Form

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