Lexical Phonology and Morphology

Carole Paradis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138995383
• eBook ISBN: 9781134741885
• Topic: Filología
• Subtopic: Lingüística

This book presents a description of the phonology and morphology of the nominal class system in Fula, a dialect which displays 21 nominal classes. These are identified by suffixes, which can attach to nominal, verbal and adjectival stems. The main objective of this work is to show, through a lexical analysis, that there are only two monomorphemic marker variants, and that the distribution of these variants is predictable.

CHAPTER 1

CLASS MARKERS IN PULAAR

1.1 Derivation and Inflection: General Aspects

1.1.1 Introduction

Fula is an accentual and aspectual subject-verb-object (SVO) language. The morphology of its nominal and verbal systems is said to be remarkably complex (cf. Arnott, 1970). The verbal system includes three voices, active, passive and middle, and each of these voices can be conjugated in fifteen different tenses.¹ Moreover, the nominal system displays about 25 class markers, the exact number varying slightly from one dialect to another, among which several variants have traditionally been distinguished as well. This dissertation aims at showing, through a lexical analysis of the class markers, that the nominal phonology and morphology of Fula, at least of Pulaar, are much less complex and arbitrary than they appear to be.

The system of nominal classes of Fula is similar to that of other nominal class languages, such as Bantu languages, in that nouns are distributed into classes. Although Fula descriptions never clearly define the notion of nominal class, it is implicitly agreed that the nominal class is an abstract concept, to which semantic features can sometimes be attached. However, these features almost never characterize the whole class, but do charaterize subsets of the class, as we will see further on. As nominal classes group together several subsets whose semantic fields overlap, one can consider them as arbitrary as the feminine and masculine in French, as the holy and non-holy or animate and inanimate in Amerindian languages. To sum up, they have above all a morphological function which is expressed by class markers. There are 21 class markers in Futankoore Pulaar, 17 in the singular and 4 in the plural. Parenthesized variants are discussed further on.

(1) Table of markers²

singular	1. du	also a nominalizer (Stratum II)
	2. dε	also a nominalizer (Stratum II)
	3. gε
	4. gɔ
	5. kɔ
	6. ɗum
	7. gal	often an augmentative
	8. gel	almost always a diminutive
	9. gol	also a nominalizer (Stratum II)
	10. ɗɔ (ɔ)	for human beings
	11. ki
	12. kal	diminutive for non-countable things
	13. ɗam (dam)
	14. ba
	15. di
	16. gu
	17. ka	often used for loanwords
plural	18. ɓε (εn)	for human beings
	19. ɗε (lε)
	20. ɗi (li)	default plural (Stratum II); cf. Chapter 5
	21. kɔn	diminutive

The grammatical functions of markers are illustrated in the examples below. The different forms that the markers can take and the stem-initial consonant alternations should be ignored for now.

(2) Examples of markers with grammatical functions

ɗu: means ‘way of’ (Stratum II example)

ɲaam-du	way of eating
ɓet-du	way of measuring
haal-du	way of speaking

dε: infinitive (Stratum II examples)

ɲaam-dε	to eat	ɓεt-dε	to measure
haal-dε	to speak	un-dε	to pound

gal: augmentative (Stratum I examples)

dεw-al	fat woman
gɔr-al	fat man

gel: diminutive (Stratum I examples)

dew-el	short woman
gor-el	short man

kɔn: diminutive plural (Stratum I examples)

^ndεw-ɔn	short women
^ŋgɔr-ɔn	short men

ɗɔ: human (Stratum I examples)

ɓiɗ-ɗɔ	son
bambaa-ɗɔ	musician
baab-iraa-ɗɔ	father

ɓε: human plural (Stratum I examples)

ɓiɓ-ɓε	sons
wambaa-ɓε	musicians
baab-iraa-ɓε	fathers

kal: diminutive for non-countable things (Stratum I examples)

cɔn-al	small quantity of flour
gaw-al	small quantity of millet
lacc-al	small quantity of couscous

gol: nominalizer (Stratum II examples)

ɲaam-gol	act of eating
ɓet-gol	act of measuring
kaal-gol	act of speaking

The markers which group together clearly identifiable semantic subsets are given below:

(3) Some semantic generalizations (Stratum I examples)

gol: idea of length
looc-ol	whip	laaw-ol	path
lef-ol	ribbon	leeɓ-ol	hair
ceelt-ol	scrap	ɗaɗ-ol	root
peec-ol	slit	ceek-ol	rip
gal: fowl, bird
dɔɔb-al	bustard	dut-al	vulture
ciil-al	sparrowhawk	gεrtɔ-gal	chicken
jarl-al	fowl (sp.)	gεrl-al	francolin
ɗam: liquid
^ndiy-am	water	^njar-am	drink
il-am	flood	yiiy-am	blood
di (ri): quantity of product
con-di [con^ndi]	flour^3	gaw-ri	millet
caak-ri	couscous	^ɲjuum-ri	honey
aaw-di	seeds	doo-di	excrement

Except for the human markers ɗɔ and ɓε, none of these generalizations is absolute. For instance, gel is not always a diminutive, e.g. bɔɔw-al ‘outside’ / bɔɔw-el ‘corner’. On the other hand, gal may not designate fowl at all, nor function as an augmentative, e.g. dam-al ‘door’, gɔn-al ‘presence’, while di (ri) may designate many t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• OVERVIEW
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABBREVIATIONS
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1: Class Markers in Pulaar
• CHAPTER 2: the Vowel System
• CHAPTER 3: Consonants and their Status
• CHAPTER 4: The Sonority Constraint and Consonant Clusters
• CHAPTER 5: Syllables, Skeleton and w and y Variants
• CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• LEXICON
• PULAAR-ENGLISH SECTION
• ENGLISH-PULAAR SECTION
• MAP OF AFRICA: FULANI AREAS
• MAP OF MAURITANIA, SENEGAL AND MALI