Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications

In Reduplication, the Base and Reduplicant usually undergo various phonological changes to reconcile and harmonise them. Despite this general view, not many studies have attested to credibility of a single phoneme for its capacity of triggering various reactions, otherwise known as the emergence of...

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Main Author: Mohana Dass Ramasamy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/1/37061-124729-2-PB.pdf
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author Mohana Dass Ramasamy,
author_facet Mohana Dass Ramasamy,
author_sort Mohana Dass Ramasamy,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description In Reduplication, the Base and Reduplicant usually undergo various phonological changes to reconcile and harmonise them. Despite this general view, not many studies have attested to credibility of a single phoneme for its capacity of triggering various reactions, otherwise known as the emergence of the unmarked (TETU). A specific coda of such nature, bilabial /m/, in one of the Dravidian language Tamil is known for registering irregular reactions at the juncture of Base and Reduplicants, forcing the coda to trigger seven types of phonological reactions, a phenomenon that probably hard to witness in universal grammar. This study discusses the phonological and morphological reactions of reduplicative words as the consequences of TETU, which were resolved in language-specific ways, within Optimality Theoretic parameters. The results verify that as long as the conflicting markedness constraints do not interrupt reconciliation of reduplicative words in Tamil, the reconciliations take place systematically without markedness reduction or increase in reduplicant, except in reduplicative words ending with labial /m/. The reduplicants tend to reduce markedness of its prosodically weak position in many ways, while the same markedness is tolerated within the base words, in isolation or otherwise. It responds, at least, in seven different ways (in isolation or simultaneously) in reduplications, suggesting that the markedness reducing and markedness increasing should be addressed as a context-sensitive issue of reduplicant-base, in the lights of natural and prosodic phonology, collectively, but not in the absence of one against another, at least for the sensitive phonemic coda, like /m/, in hand.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:152732020-09-29T12:30:48Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/ Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications Mohana Dass Ramasamy, In Reduplication, the Base and Reduplicant usually undergo various phonological changes to reconcile and harmonise them. Despite this general view, not many studies have attested to credibility of a single phoneme for its capacity of triggering various reactions, otherwise known as the emergence of the unmarked (TETU). A specific coda of such nature, bilabial /m/, in one of the Dravidian language Tamil is known for registering irregular reactions at the juncture of Base and Reduplicants, forcing the coda to trigger seven types of phonological reactions, a phenomenon that probably hard to witness in universal grammar. This study discusses the phonological and morphological reactions of reduplicative words as the consequences of TETU, which were resolved in language-specific ways, within Optimality Theoretic parameters. The results verify that as long as the conflicting markedness constraints do not interrupt reconciliation of reduplicative words in Tamil, the reconciliations take place systematically without markedness reduction or increase in reduplicant, except in reduplicative words ending with labial /m/. The reduplicants tend to reduce markedness of its prosodically weak position in many ways, while the same markedness is tolerated within the base words, in isolation or otherwise. It responds, at least, in seven different ways (in isolation or simultaneously) in reduplications, suggesting that the markedness reducing and markedness increasing should be addressed as a context-sensitive issue of reduplicant-base, in the lights of natural and prosodic phonology, collectively, but not in the absence of one against another, at least for the sensitive phonemic coda, like /m/, in hand. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/1/37061-124729-2-PB.pdf Mohana Dass Ramasamy, (2020) Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications. GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 20 (2). pp. 57-82. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1267
spellingShingle Mohana Dass Ramasamy,
Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications
title Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications
title_full Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications
title_fullStr Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications
title_full_unstemmed Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications
title_short Irregular behaviours of coda /M/ in Tamil reduplications
title_sort irregular behaviours of coda /m/ in tamil reduplications
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15273/1/37061-124729-2-PB.pdf