here - 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages

Prosodic Phrasing in Copperbelt Bemba
Lee Bickmore, University at Albany, l.bickmore@albany.edu
Nancy C. Kula, University of Essex, nckula@essex.ac.uk
This paper investigates the structure of prosodic phrases in Copperbelt Bemba with the goal of
defining the mechanisms that determine these phrases (in particular, the phonological phase) and
comparing them to those motivated in closely related languages. A number of syntactic
configurations are investigated including verbal complementation and nominal modification. A
number of phonological rules have been found to be sensitive to phrase boundaries in Copperbelt
Bemba: (i) Unbounded High Spreading (ii) Inter-word H Spreading and (iii) Inter-word H Fusion.
Of these, Unbounded Spreading, is the one which most clearly diagnoses phonological phrase
boundaries. Specifically, the rightmost H in a word will undergo unbounded spreading if that word
is phonological phrase-final, but will undergo bounded spreading if another word follows in the
same p-phrase.
Under this diagnostic, within the verbal domain a verb and its complement in V+Adv and
V+Obj configurations phrase together in the same phonological phrase. However in cases w<strong>here</strong> an
object marker is present on the verb in V+Object, the object begins a new phonological phrase. And
if the NP after the verb is not an object, but rather a post-posed subject, then they are also members
of distinct p-phrases. For multiple complementation in V+Obj+Adv and V+Obj+Obj structures, the
verb and following object are part of one p-phrase, but the following word begins a new one. In a
Subj+Verb configuration the two words are part of different p-phrases.
In the nominal domain the nominal head plus the first following modifier phrase together
and this pattern holds not only for adjectives, but also for associative phrases. However, in the case
of a sequence of more that one modifier it is only the modifier immediately following the noun that
phrases together with the noun. The phrasing of adjectives differs between those with and without
the augment, with the former, which can also be regarded as reduced relatives, generally not
phrasing with the nominal head. In cases w<strong>here</strong> more than one adjective is present, the first
‘regular’ non-augmented adjective phrases with the noun while following adjectives, with the
augment, must phrase independently. In conjunctive phrases, t<strong>here</strong> is a phonological phrase break
between the first NP and the conjunction, while the conjunction phrases with the following NP.
In terms of defining these phrases with respect to the syntax, we will show that, as has been
claimed for a variety of other Bantu languages, phonological phrase boundaries (within both verbal
and nominal constructions) are generally found at the right edges of maximal projections.
While Copperbelt Bemba is quite similar to other related languages, such as Cilungu
(Bickmore 1997), in how p-phrases are formed, it has several interesting properties which are not
shared. First, the phrasal spreading properties of a H on a final or penultimate syllable are distinct
from those on a pre-penultimate syllable. We will show that this is due to the fact that t<strong>here</strong> are
word-level tonal rules which apply first (Kula & Bickmore forthcoming), which feed the phraselevel
ones. Second, the other two phrase level processes mentioned above, Inter-Word Spreading
and Inter-Word Fusion, are shown to operate between words of distinct p-phrases, w<strong>here</strong>as in, e.g.
Cilungu, they would not. Finally, we show that the spreading properties of a H depend not only on
its overall prosodic context, but also partially on its morphological status, e.g. whether it is an
augment H versus a Root H.
References:
Bickmore, Lee. 2007. Cilungu Phonology. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and
Communication.
Kula, Nancy & Lee Bickmore. Forthcoming. Ternary Spreading and the OCP in Copperbelt Bemba.
Studies in African Linguistics.
GS