On the (ir)regularity of Dunan verbal morphophonology

Abstract

Abstract Against claims of Yamada, Pellard, and Shimoji (Yamada, Masahiro, Thomas Pellard & Michinori Shimoji. 2015. Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan). In Patrick Heinrich, Shinshō Miyara & Michinori Shimoji (eds.), Handbook of the Ryukyuan languages, 449–478. Berlin: de Gruyter and Pellard, Thomas & Masahiro Yamada. 2017. Verb morphology and conjugation classes in Dunan (Yonaguni). In Ferenc Kiefer, James P. Blevins & Huba Bartos (eds.), Perspectives on morphological organization: Data and analyses, 31–49. Leiden: Brill), I argue that the verbal morphophonology of Dunan (Yonaguni) is in most respects systematic and rule-governed. I first identify the relatively low-level rules that govern the resolution of hiatus at stem boundary and then review stem and suffix alternations, showing that in each case there is only a limited amount of lexically listed allomorphy. After summarizing the proposed analysis and displaying representative derivations, I propose a set of principles on the basis of which the central elements of that analysis could be attained by language learners. Finally, I consider the reasons for the divergence between the conclusions reached here and those of Yamada, Pellard, and Shimoji, suggesting that an even more important factor than the unreceptiveness of those authors to the postulation of phonological rules is their skepticism about the concept of the morpheme.