deverbal action nouns in tashelhit

~\I\'" Structures mOfJlhologiques de l'amazighe

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A Study of sorne Deverbal Action Nounsin Ayt Mzal Tashelhiyt Berber Within

The Correspondence Theory

Khadija ANASSEUniversity Ibn Tofail, Faculty of Letters, Kenitra

1will first present a brief note on the variety under study. Then 1 shall move tothe discussion of the correspondence theory (McCarthy & Prince, 1995; Kager,1999) which may be considered as an extension of the optimality theory (Prince &Smolensky, 1993). Finally, 1 shall try to analyze sorne action nouns within thistheory.

1- A Note on the Dialect:

Ayt Mzal Tashelhiyt Berber (AMTB) is one variety of Tashelhiyt Berber. Itbelongs to the "Chleuh group" which is limited by the Atlantic Ocean in the West,by the Draa River in the East and South, and by an "ideal line" going fromEssaouira to the region of Demnat in the North.

The Ayt Mzal tribe is made up by speakers living in the Cada(administrative circle) of Ayt Baha, which is situated south of Taroundant, andsouth east of Agadir, and whose area does not exceed 20 km'. ln more specifieterms, Ayt Mzal is surrounded by Tasguedelt in the North, Targantouchka in theSouth, Hilala in the East, and Imi mqoum, Sidi Boushab and Ayt Ouadrim in theWest (cf. Anasse, 1994: 27-29).

2- The Correspondence Theory (McCarthy & Prince 1995, Kager1999).

The correspondence theory as laid out in McCarthy &Prince, 1995 and Kager,1999 may be defined as follows:

140

Structures morphologiques de l'amazighe

(a) Correspondence:Given two strings SI and S2, correspondence is a relation R from the

elements of SI to those of S2. Elements aESI and ~ES2 are refered to ascorrespondents of one another when aR~.

The Correspondence Theory of faithfulness posits a correspondencerelation R from the input to each of its output candidates. For example, in themapping /bat! ~ bati, the candidate bati includes the information that Q, ~, and 1correspond to segments of the input, but idoes not.

Correspondence Theory provides a general framework for statingconstraints demanding faithfulness to linguistic objects. A candidate is unfaithfulwhenever its associated correspondence relation describes anything other than anorder- and structure preserving mapping that is one-to-one and onto.

Four major primitive constraints are proposed in the correspondenceframework of McCarthy and Prince (1995). These are as follows:

(A) The MAX family of constraints:General schema: Every segment of SI has a correspondent in S2.

Specifie Instantiations : MAX-IO : Every segment of the input has acorrespondent in the output (no phonological deletion)

The MAX family of constraints militate against deletion, so every elementofthe input is in correspondence with the output. The input is maximally expressedin the output. ln other words, the MAX faithfulness constraints simply require thematerial present in the input be present in the output.

(B) The DEP family of constraints :General schema: Every segment of S2has a correspondent SI (S2 is

'dependent' on SI).

Specifie Instantiations: DEP-IO: Every segment of the output has acorrespondent in the input (Prohibits Phonological Epenthesis).

The third type of constraints is the IDENT - family, a family of faithfulnessconstraints on feature specifications requiring input and output forms to beidentical feature-wise :

(C) The IDENT - Family of Constraints:

General schema: Let a be a segment in SI and ~ be any correspondent ofa in S2. If ais [yF], then ~ is [yF] (correspondent segments are identical in featureF).

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Specifie lnstantiations: IDENT-IO (F) : Output correspondents of an input[yF] segment are also [yF].

The fourth type of correspondence constraints is the ANCHORINGconstraints that demands the alignment of the edges of different constituents.

(D) The ANCHORING farnily of constraints :{Right, Left} - ANCHOR (SI - S2)

Any element at the designated periphery of SI has a correspondent at thedesignated periphery of S2.

Let Edge (X, {L, R}) : the element standing at the edge L, R of X.

RIGHT-ANCHOR. lfx = Edge (S!, R) and y = Edge (S2,) then x RyLEFT-ANCHOR. Likewise, mutatis mutandis.

(McCarthy and Prince, 1995 : 295)

ANCHORING regulates the coincidence of a prosodie edge and amorphological one, for example. The requirement that the stem, a morphologicalconstituent, and the prosodie word, a prosodie constituent, be aligned has beenmotivated in the literature.

Other constraints are dealt with in McCarthy and Prince (1995 : 296), viz.LINEARITY, which exc1udes metathesis, and UNIFORMITY and INTEGRITYwhich rule out two types of multiple correspondence-coalescence, where twoelements of SI are fused in S2, and diphtongization or phonologicai copying, whereone element of SI is split or cloned in S2.

3- Analysis of sorne AMTB Action NounsAction nouns are divided into masculine and feminine ones. Masculine actionnouns are process nouns and are called action nouns, and feminine action nouns areinstance or one-time nouns and are called Resultative Nouns. These are c1assifiedinto three categories: Consonant - Final, Vowel - Final, And Altemating FinalVowel / Glide Roots.ln this present analysis, 1 shall assume that the Action Noun morpheme is adiscontinuous one { a- a - }. The first {a} is found initially, while another {a} maybe found either prefinally (e.g. amgar "action of harvesting", or finally (e.g. ana"action of dividing").1will try to analyze sorne consonant final roots

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A) Consonant- Final Roots

The derivation of Act. Ns from consonant-final roots involves prefixationof {a} and in sorne cases an accompanying prefinal vowel {a}. Within thisanalysis, 1 will list sorne different types of consonant-final verb forms and theircorresponding Act.N's.Onsetless syllables exist only word-initially onsetless syllables word-initiaIly. Theonset constraint states that syllables must have onsets except word initially.

Different kinds of constraints will be investigated and then ranked withrespect to one another. 1will also try to visualize the different interactions betweenthe different constraints on output well-formedness as weIl as the way theoptimality of a given candidate is determined.

1) Quadriconsonantals and Triconsonantals with LexicalVowels:

Underlying Form Action Noun

a) bddal 'change' a-baddalkrfss 'ill-treat' a-kerfasg8llab 'turn' a-gallab

b)wwunzar 'nosebleed' a-wwunzarrfufan 'go through' a-rfufan

'hardships'summar 'stay in the sun' a-summerstutal 'crawl' a-stutsl

c) bukzd 'be blind' a-bukzdkusam 'be crippled' a-kusemssifed 'send' a-ssifed

As noticed in (1), no change takes place. Only a - is prefixed to thecorresponding form. The correspondence diagram is illustrated as follows:

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(1) Input:n a q q a r

Output: a- na q.qar

-a- is not infixed in such a class of nouns.

The MAX-family of constraints which militates against deletion isrespected. Every segment of the input has a correspondent in the output. Nophonological deletion takes place.

Act. Ns which are formed through the prefixation and infixation of {a} are ill-formed (e.g. *a-baddal, *a-wwunzar, *a-bukaq).

ln AMTB, it is preferable to kep the input (with prefixation of a) rather than tochange the vowel features of a, which is a mid-central unrounded vowel, to a,which is a low back unrounded vowel. The infixation of -a- which is part of theAct. N. discontinuous morpheme does not take place in this class of nouns. Thismay be better clarified through the following tableau:

2)

/bddl, Act. NI IDEN - V (F) iAct. N. - a -]

or 1- abaddal *

2- abddal *!

As noticed, the optimal output violates the lowest ranking constraint, Act. N. -a-].

The IDENT -family of faithfulness constraints on feature specifications (herevowel features) which requires input and output forms to be identical concemingfeatures is not violated.

With respect to the Anchor-family of constrairus, it is not violated since theedges of the verb root and the Act.N. coincide. More specifically, the Rigir-Anchorconstraint is respected and it is seen to dominate the constraint AcLN -a - ] through

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the following tableau:

(3)

/ badd81, Act N./ Right-Anchor ActN. - a-]

(jf"'l- abddl *

2- abddal *!

For quadriconsonantals, we may deduce the following ranking: IDENT-V (F)(V= Vowel, F= Features Right-Anchor ActN. -a-]. The optimal candidateviolates the lowest ranking constraint (i.e. Act

N.-a-D.The same ranking is adequate for triconsonantals with lexical vowels (e.g.

wwunzr /awwunzr).

11-Triconsonantals :

Underlying Form Action Noun

a) ksm 'enter' a- ksam

zdy 'dwell' a - zday

b) fam 'sort out' a - frank8rz 'plough' a- kraz

It is noticed in this class of Act. Ns that the latter are formed by theprefixation of a - and infixation of - a - prefinally.

Triconsonantals in (lIa) are different from those in (IIb). ln (lIa), the schwaappears before the last segment, while in (II b), it appears after the first segment.The schwa actually appears before the most sonorous segment.

The second difference between the two sets (II.a) and (II.b) is that, in (lIa)the imperfective is formed by geminating the second segment (i.e. ksarnl k8ss8m),while in (lIb) the imperfective is obtained by geminating the first one (i.e. fam /

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ffrn).However, when forming the Act. N., they both infix - a - before the last

segment.The correspondence diagram is illustrated as follows:

(4)

Input k s a m

JOutput a - k s a mAs noticed, a changes to a (which is Act. N -a -]IDENT - V (F) is violated in the examples in ILa. Violation arises since [a]

which appears in the output corresponds to [ a ] in the input, and both segmentshave conflicting values (a is low back unrounded, and a is mid-central unrounded).This may be shown through the following tableau:

(5)

Ik s a m, Act. NI Act. N - a-] IDEN - V (F)Crl- aksam *

2- aksm *!

The optimal candidate violates the IDEN-V'(F) constraint.In (II.b), the analysis is based on the idea that the final syllable of the Act. N.

has to be heavy. ln the case of afran, the epenthesis of -a - is one way of achievingfinal syllable heavy weight. For such items, the constraints FINAL REA VYSYLLABLE CONSTRAINT allll] is adopted:

This constraint will rule out as ill-formed any derived Act. N. that does not endin a heavy syllable. ln the case of a-frarr. the faithful candidate *a-fam, is ill-formed since it does not end in a heavy syllable. Besides, "afran leads to syllableviolation. No ca is permitted in AMTB.

Epenthesis of -a- is triggered by the need to satisfy 611 Il]. The MAX-Vconstraint prohibits deletion. This may be shown in the following:

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(6)

1 fDm (Act. N) 1 61l1l MAX Remarks

C' 1- a-fran * Deletion of a2- a-fran Faithful

The faithful candidate violates the internaI syllable structure of AMTB. *casyllables are prohibited in AMTB.

For items such as afran, the Final Heavy Syllable Constraint 6 Illl] dominatesthe constraint *6 [Ca]. This may be shown in the following tableau:

/7)

I/fa rn, Act. NI 61lfJ.] * 6 [Ca] MAX-V

C' l-afran *

2- a fara n *!

To satisfy [Ca] is to simply delete one of the input segments la 1. ln this case,the deletion of the lai would yield the output [a fr a n], for instance, where *6 [Ca]would be satisfied since the [a] is no longer present. However, such a deletionwould violate the correspondence constraint MAX-IO which states that inputsegments must have output correspondents. Besides, the faithful candidate *a- fa rn scores worse that the well-formed output a-fran. ~a r n actually violates the*COMPLEX CONSTRAINT which prohibits the branching of syllable nodes. Thismay be shown in (8):

(8)1 frn, (Act.

* COMPLEX 6ilfJ.] MAX-VN)I

C' l-afran *

2- a fDm *! *!*

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The optimal candidate violates the lowest ranking constraint MAXV owel.Unlike quadriconsonantals and triconsonantals with lexical vowels discussed

earlier in (I) where in the Right-Anchor Constraint is respected in the derived Act.Ns, triconsonantals such as ksm 1 aksam, fml a f r a n, violate such a constraintsince the right edge of the verb form and that of its corresponding Act. N do notcoincide.

111-Biconsonantals and Biconsonantals with Initial Lexical Vowels:

Underlying Form Action Nouna) g an 'sleep agganfal 'leave' affaI

b) d a r 'fall down' attaryaz 'dig' aqqaz

c)a q n 'be ill' aganamz 'take' ammaz

As noticed from the examples above, the initial root consonant in (III a - c)gets geminated in order to fit the prosodie template [6111161111l Both syllablesshould be heavy (i.e. VC. CVC). * agan, for example, is ill-formed.

The following tableau will c1arify this:(9)

Ign, Act.N 1 61111] [61111 IDENT-V (F)1- aggan *2- agan *!

The epenthesis of g actually ends up in gemination which takes place throughleftward spreading (cf. McCarthy, 1986).

For d a r 1 a- ttar, it is noticed that the gemination of d ends up with n. ln otherwords, when d gets gerninated, devoicing takes place.

The underlying voice feature is lost in the output. The IDENT - family ofconstraints is therefore violated.

Violation arises since [t] a voiceless segment in the output correspondswith a voiced segment Id! in the input, and both segments have conflicting valuesfor voice.

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ln AMTB, many derived nouns reveal the fact that the gemination of twod's automatically leads to devoicing (tt), This may be considered as a phoneticprocess.

For 'yaz', the derived Act.N. is not * [ayyaz], but [aqqaz]. lnstead of[yy], [qq] isphonetically realized. This results from the occ1usivization rule (Elmedlaoui, 1985 :138).

ln 'ammaz ' and 'attan', the status of the initial vowel is problematic. Is it aprefix or is it lexical (i.e. part of the root)?

It may be said that the initial lexical vowel blocks the prefixation of aj- , andanother - ar is infixed as a copy of the initial underlying vowel la 1. ln otherwords, the copying process results in the appearance of two a's in the phoneticform, and takes place from left to right.

*[ a.ammaz] and [ a.attan] are il1 -formed in AMTB since it is not allowed tohave an onset less syllable internally. This is shown in the following:(10)

1az, Act.NI Onset Act.N.-a-] 6flfl] [6flfl IDENT.V(F)cs= 1- ammaz *2- a-ammaz. *1 *

As noticed, the constraints are ranked in the following form:Onset Act.N-a-a] 6flfl ] IDENT-V).ln this analysis, 1 have tried to analyze sorne action nouns which correspond to

consonant - final roots. The coincidence of the final roots underlying material withthe material contained in the action noun shows that the two elements should beright anchored.

For quadriconsonantals and triconsonantals with one or two lexical vowels, a-isprefixed to get the action nouns (e.g. bddl, kusm/akusm). in other words,IDEN-V(F) constraint dominates the Act.N-a-] Constraint.

As concerns triconsonantals roots, two a's are affixed to end up with correctaction nouns. One is prefixed initially, while the other one is infixed prefinally (e.g.ksm/aksarn}. The Finally Heavy Syllable constraint dominates the Max-V.

REFERENCESAnasse, K (1994). A Study of Deverbal Nominals in Ayt Mzal Tashelhiyt

Berber - A Non- Concatenative Approach. Third Cycle Thesis,Mohammed V University, Faculty of Letters, Rabat.

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Elmedlaoui, M (1988). De la Gmination, LOAPLI, 117-156.Kager, R (1999). Optimality Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.McCarthy, J.J. (1986). OCP effects: Gemination and Antigemination.

Linguistic Inquiry 4: 207-263.McCarthy, J.J.and A. Prince (1995). Faithfulness and Reduplicative Identity.

University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 18:Papers in Optimality Theory. (Rutgers Optimality Archive # 60).

Prince and Smolensky (1993). Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction inGenerative Grammar. Ms Rutgers University and University ofColorado at Boulder.

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numrisation0016

deverbal action nouns in tashelhit

Documents

lamazighea correspondence

segment of si

max faithfulness constraints

elementofthe input

ayt mzal tribe

dep family of constraints

ayt ouadrim

type of constraints