A typology of tone and inflection: A view from the Oto-Manguean languages of Mexico

International audienceTone is well-known for playing a role in the makeup of inflection, but the literature has notyet produced a comprehensive typology of the relation between tone and inflection from amorphological perspective. There are various reasons for this. On the one hand, the interest inthe morphological side (i.e. the form) of inflection has lain outside the general spotlight oflinguistic typology, which, except for the Surrey Morphology Group, has been mainlyconcerned with trying to make sense of linguistic structure in functional terms. I show herethat in most situations where tone is involved in inflection it is difficult, if not impossible, togive it a clear-cut morphosyntactic function