Date Available

7-28-2017

Year of Publication

2017

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Linguistic Theory and Typology (MALTT)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Linguistics

First Advisor

Dr. Gregory Stump

Second Advisor

Dr. Fabiola Henri

Abstract

This thesis mainly examines inflectional morphology of verbal paradigms in Laki, which is considered as one of the Southern varieties of Kurdish language. The association of form and content of morphological markings are viewed from a realizational angle, in which exponents (morphological forms) are associated with the morphosyntactic properties via the application of rules of exponence, appealed by paradigm functions (Stump 2001) and ordered into rule blocks (Anderson 1992). In particular, I applied the paradigm linkage theory proposed and fully developed by Stump (2002 and 2016) to account for Laki verbal paradigms. In this study, it is claimed that alignment pattern and the syntagmatic combination of some of the inflectional exponents such as agreement markers are sensitive to preterite property. Hence, I argue in favor of considering two distinct morphotactic patternings in Laki. As the result of this assumption, depending on whether the inflectional markers attach to a preterite or a non-preterite stem, we should define two separate sets of affix position in this language. Moreover, I examine Laki polyfunctional agreement markers through the consideration of the morphotactics of this language. Applying Stump's analysis (to appear) of Swahili verbal concords, I consider two distinct types of content for these agreement markers: intrinsic content, and positional content. Their positional content is what the morphotactics of the language determines.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.330

Included in

Morphology Commons

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