Morpheme boundary phonotactics in Australian languages

© 2021 Tula WynyardThis thesis considers the relationship between intra-morphemic and inter-morphemic phonotactics in Australian languages. A priori, we might posit that in a given language, the same segmental restrictions would apply within morphemes and across morpheme boundaries, but the consonant clusters found in these environments in Australian languages contradict this assumption. Drawing on data from grammars of 12 languages across the continent (Bardi, Bunuba, Djambarrpuyngu, Gurr-goni, Kayardild, Kugu Nganhcara, Martuthunira, Ngiyambaa, Ungarinyin, Warlpiri, Wubuy and Yidiny), this study highlights both the norms and extremes of phonotactic behaviour in Australian languages. Two approaches are employed in this thesis to determine the extent to which inter-morphemic clusters conform to intra-morphemic phonotactic patterns. The first approach examines static phonotactic constraints, using implicational and frequency-based markedness generalisations and feature-based constraints to survey the surface clusters that occur intra-morphemically and inter-morphemically. The second approach investigates live phonotactic constraints at work on underlying clusters across morpheme boundaries. Using evidence from hardening and lenition alternations, epenthesis and deletion strategies, and loanword adaptation, I show how the surface realisation of consonant clusters across morpheme boundaries is determined by the resolution (or lack thereof) of phonotactic violations. The static and live constraints analyses are complemented by a quantitative study of a corpus in Wubuy, which demonstrates how frequently these clusters are attested in natural speech. The results of this study reflect a continuum of phonotactic patterns: at one end, the languages that allow a far wider range of permitted clusters across morpheme boundaries than morpheme-internally; at the other end, languages where cluster resolution strategies, surprisingly, enforce stronger restrictions inter-morphemically than intra-morphemically