A Typology of Tonal Exponence

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents a typology of tonal exponence. Couched within an Abstractive Word-and-Paradigm approach to morphology, the present study builds on previous studies on exponence typology and morphological organization by extending it to the study of tone. About half the languages of the world have tone systems, and tone is an important dimension in the morphologies of numerous languages. Tone is therefore a necessary part of a comprehensive typology of exponence. This paper shows that like segmental exponents, tonal exponents may be involved in a diversity of form-function mappings, but they also pose unique challenges due to their autosegmental nature. This study aims to advance our understanding of the role of tone in the organization of morphological systems by addressing deviations from form-function isomorphism, polyfunctionality, morphomic distributions, paradigmatic layers, and inflectional class organization. It is argued that the attested diversity of form-function mappings constitutes an empirical argument for a paradigm-based view of morphology, where the attested diversity is taken at face value and the range of encoding strategies are treated as equivalent, as opposed to choosing form-function isomorphism as the theoretical ‘ideal’.