1887
image of A prosodic-cyclic theory of circumfix linearization

Abstract

This paper proposes a theory of circumfix linearization in Distributed Morphology. The core of the proposal is that circumfixation arises whenever one of two exponents of the same morphosyntactic feature has a prosodic subcategorization frame. This will be exemplified with data from Indonesian nominalizations where facts regarding stress placement, the domain of nominalization and other grammatical processes point towards a prosodic-cyclic analysis. The analysis is extended to mode P-circumfixes in Meskwaki, circuminfixes in Tlahuitoltepec Mixe, and prosodically conditioned circumfixes in German past participles.

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2025-09-22
2026-07-15
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