Morphosyntactic Triggers of Tone:
New Data and Theories

Call

Whereas tone has played a central role in the evolution of phonological theory (Goldsmith 1976, Pulleyblank 1986, Yip 2002), the channels by which morphology and syntax trigger tonal reflexes or conversely restrict tonal alternations are still hardly understood. Firmly persuaded by Hyman's (2011) dictum that `tone can do everything segmental or metrical phonology can do' (and more), we think that it is absolutely essential for linguistics to develop a better understanding for the empirical richness and the theoretical implications of the morphosyntax of tone. The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum to this end which brings together descriptively and theoretically oriented linguists addressing questions such as:

• How does morphosyntactic structure interact with tonal phonology? Do syntactic constructions trigger specific tone patterns? Which types of morphosyntactic boundaries restrict (or are required by) general tonal alternations? Does opacity in tonal processes correlate with morphological and syntactic levels of derivation?
• How does tonal featural affixation work morphologically? how are tonal morphemes linearized? Where do they show systematic patterns of syncretism and blocking or multiple exponence? What is the distribution of tonal prefixation and suffixation? Is there a tonal equivalent to infixation, and how does tonal overwriting work in contrast to additive tonal morphology?
• What can tonal phenomena teach us about the morphology-syntax interface? Are tonal alternations at the phrasal level substantially different from word-level processes? Where do tonal alternations crosscut the boundaries between word-level morphology and phrasal syntax?

We invite abstracts for twenty-minute talks with a ten-minute discussion. We especially encourage contributions which present original fieldwork (or experimental results), but also highly welcome submissions that provide new theoretical approaches, establish new descriptive generalizations, or, simply, bring to the fore relevant data that have been published, but so far ignored in a the theoretical discussion.

Invited Speakers

• Yuni Kim (University of Manchester)
• Mary Paster (Pomona College)
• Gerrit Dimmendaal (University of Cologne)

Abstract Submission

Eva.Zimmermann[aet]uni-leipzig.de

Author Information

1. Name(s) of author(s)
2. Title of talk
3. Affiliation(s)
4. E-mail address(es)

Deadline for Submission: March 31, 2015

Notification of Acceptance: April 15, 2015