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form /CV1/, with the process of subminimal root augmentation inserting the initial vowel
in the word. Since the compound is already bisyllabic, the motivation for SRA is lost,
hence yielding A( A(. A( A(
Third is the degree of variation (Va). The formal reduction may be obligatory,
optional, or unattested. The word for ‘door’ in Mono is =@= =@= =@= =@= which comes from == == == ==
‘mouth’ and =@= =@= =@= =@= ‘house’. I have not attested the associative noun phrase == == == == =@= =@=, =@= =@= so
this appears to be a case in which the reduction is obligatory. In the case of ‘fruit’
discussed above, both A( A( A( A( and A(A( A(A( A(A( A(A( are attested, so the reduction is optional. A case in
which formal reduction is unattested is the word (( (( (( (( == == == == ‘lip (skin + mouth)’. Here,
semantic restriction has occurred, but formal reduction has not, i.e. *(= (= (=. (=
Finally, a compound may exhibit irregular phonological modification (PM). For
example, the word =M =M =M =M ‘firewood’ comes from the combination ‘tree’ and M M M M
‘fire’. Given the phonological structure of the base words, we would expect the
compound to have the form *M M M, M but this is unattested. Rather, the of / / has changed
to = in the compound.
Examples of compound nouns in Mono are given in (13). The most common type
of compound results from the fusion of the elements in an associative noun phrase, in
which the first element is the head (13a). Also common is the combination of an
adjective and noun (13b). However, the elements which make up a compound noun are
not limited to those found in a noun phrase, as seen in (13d,e). The result of these
compounds is nevertheless a nominal word.
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