Losing your modularity: the entwining of phonology and morphology in Kayardild
Monday, 7 December 2009, Colloquium
Abstract
Kayardild is a language whose phonology is pervaded by sensitivities to the morphology. In addition, the morphology is sensitive to the phonology, and not just to phonological inputs, but to phonological outputs too. The result is a pair of components of the grammar which, if they can be regarded as ‘modules’ in the traditional sense, are modules with a decidedly unmodular character. This talk examines the empirical nature of Kayardild’s phonology and its morphological conditioning, as well as two kinds of allomorphy which are sensitive to the phonology. Some implications for the typology of phonology-morphology interactions are considered, and a promising role is identified for further research on Australian languages.