Output-conditioned and non-local allomorphy in Armenian theme vowels

Abstract

Cross-linguistically, it is difficult to tease apart allomorphy from readjustment rules. But regardless, both tend to respect locality and are sensitive to information that is present in the input, not the output. We document a counter-example to these tendencies from Western Armenian, and we discuss how the data falsifies such restrictive models of allomorphy. The Western Armenian theme vowel -i- changes to the theme vowel -e- due to two types of triggers. The first type of trigger is phonological: the change happens when the theme vowel is unstressed in the output. This is a type of allomorphy that is conditioned by output phonology. The second type of trigger is morphological: the change happens when the verb is in the past tense. The +Past morpheme can be either in the verb (adjacent to the theme vowel) or on a separate auxiliary in periphrasis. This amounts to a case of long-distance allomorphy that is conditioned across words, even in suspended affixation. For suspended affixation, I provide semantic and prosodic evidence that suspended affixation is created via base-generation and not via ellipsis. The inability to use ellipsis acts as additional evidence that the allomorphy is long-distance.