Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication In Igbo

Journal of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria Volume 13 Number 2 2010 (pp. 339-348) Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo Evelyn Mbah Department of Linguistics, Igbo and other Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 08037751302 The paper studies the activities of tone in noun reduplication. It observes that when some nouns are reduplicated, some inherent tones of the nouns change. Of all the five different tonal structures of nouns studied, four have tonal changes. The tonal structures and their changes are: two low tones change to low high low low tones, low high change to low high downstep high, high downstep change to high high downstep high, and high high change to high high downstep high. The only situation where the tone does not change is if and only if the noun has a combination of high and low tones. The tonal structures are guided by some principles. With the principles, some constraints on tones are used to determine the adequacy of optimality theory in accounting for tonal changes in noun reduplication. By promotion and demotion of IO and BR constraints a certain type of reduplication is achieved. Promotion of IO constraints yields partial tonal reduplication, on the other hand, if the BR constraints are promoted, full tonal reduplication is the outcome. Introduction Tone is an important aspect of linguistic study. About 70% of the world’s languages are tonal (Yip 2007). A tone language is defined as “… one in which an indication of pitch enters into the lexical realization of at least some morphemes” Hyman (2006: 229). By this definition, accentual languages like Japanese or Lithuanian (Blevins 1993) are included as a sub-type of tone language, in which words have one (or several) tone or no tones, and the tone is associated with a particular syllable or mora. Some other areas of the world like sub-Saharan Africa, China, and Central America have almost all their languages tonal. Igbo, like all of the Nigerian languages is tonal. The number and type of tone in a word vary in languages. In Igbo, all syllables are tone-marked (Nwachukwu 1995). In a Tanzanian [Bantu] language known as Chizigula (Kenstowicz and Kisseberth 1990), some words have all syllables low-toned while in others one or more syllables have a high tone. In some cases when two lexical items are close to each other (as in associative construction, reduplication etc) one or more of the inherent tones may change. Apart from Cantonese where there is a little or no change of the underlying tone at the surface form, many other tone languages move, delete, or alter their underlying tones. Tonal changes exist due to a specific local tonal context or due to positional and/or prosodic factors. In the former, languages like Igbo, Yoruba, Bantu, Mandarin, among others have their tonal changes based on the types of tone that are adjacent to the other. In Bantu there is a popular rule known as Meeussen’s Rule where in a situation of two H adjacent tones, the second one deletes. In Mandarin, when two L tones are adjacent, the first one changes to a LH rise (Yip 2007). This is also applicable to Igbo (Nwachukwu 1995 and Mbah 2008). In Yoruba, a vowel with an input L tone surfaces with a HL contour output if preceded by H, and on the other hand, a vowel with an underlying H Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo 340 surfaces as a LH if preceded by L (Akinlabi and Liberman 2000). Similarly, in Chinantec (Silverman 1997), the tone of the first syllable continues even to the beginning of the next syllable by way of assimilation. Another reason for tonal change may be as a result of positional and /or prosodic factors. Some of the languages that exhibit this kind of tonal change are Shanghai, Chizigula, Trique and Min. In Min, there are two variants of every tone where one variant is found in the head and the other variant in non-head location. In San Juan Copala Trique (Hollenbach 1977), there exists eight different tonal contrast on final syllables and no tone contrast at all on the non-final syllables. Yip (2007) notes that the reason for the contrast on final syllables is because the final syllable is the head which carries tone. Thus, “final syllables are the only ones that support segmental contrasts such as vowel length, nasal vowels, fortis onsets, and laryngeal codas, and are the location of phrasal stress” (232). In Chizigula, H tones drift to the penultimate syllable, where the head words usually occur. In Shanghai, there is deletion of tones that are not in the head syllable of the word. In some tone languages, contour tones are seen as a single feature as in Ibibio (Urua 2001). In Hausa (Newman 1995, Jagger 2001), they are seen as sequences of level tones. There are two variants of some words (bisyllabic and monosyllabic). Where a bisyllabic word is HL, the monosyllable bears a fall tone. The fall can be seen as a HL on a single vowel due to elision of a vowel and a relinking of its tone. In reduplication (a process of word formation that repeats all or part of a word or phrase) segments and suprasegments may be repeated. Sometimes the exact word or phrase may be copied into the reduplicant. At other times, only an aspect (whether segmental or suprasegmental) may be repeated in the reduplicant. In former case reduplication is said to be full while in the later case, it is partial. Tonal reduplication can be analysed using correspondence theory. The hallmark of reduplication within the framework of correspondence theory is that the base and the reduplicant have identical components. In tonal noun reduplication like other forms of reduplication in Igbo, there are cases where the input tone varies with the base and the reduplicant. Some Scholars like Myers & Carleton (1996), Akinlabi (1997), Hyman & Mtenje (1999), Downing (2002 a, b and nd) among others argue following McCarthy (1994) that in cases where there are tonal mismatches between the input and reduplicant, they result from ‘The Emergence of the Unmarked’ (TETU). In TETU, the base is argued to bear the marked tone whereas the reduplicant has the unmarked tone. In the section that follows, we will show how tonal matches and mismatches manifest in the Igbo noun reduplication using Correspondence Theory. Noun Tonal Reduplication in Igbo In this type of reduplication, there are two types of tonal reduplication: full and partial. Many of the noun tonal copyings appear to be partial. When certain nouns are reduplicated, there are some observable changes existing at the suprasegmental level. The tone of the affixed reduplicant and that of the base sometimes vary. The variation is as a result of tones trying to minimally violate some universal phono-constraints. It is our intention in this subsection to study the variation using the appropriate constraints. In Igbo, tonal variations are not haphazard. There are rules guiding and regulating the mismatches (see Emenanjo (1978), Ikekeonwu (1993), Nwachukwu (1995), and Obianika (2006). We can posit the following tones of the base and the reduplicated forms: Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo 341 i. Where the base tones are two low tones, the reduplicated form would be a LHLL form, as in: Base LL a. b. c. ii. If the base tones are two high tones (HH), the reduplicated form takes the HHSH, as in: Base HH O u u b. u c. very angry Reduplicated form LHSH ↓ eggs ↓ u all back how many each ↓ e. pears If the base tones are HS, the reduplicated ones are HHSH, e.g.: Base HS a. ↓ b. ↓ a. b. c. d. e. many meat strengths ↓ d. v. u If the base tones are LH, the reduplicated tones are LHSH, e.g.: a. Base LH b. c. ↓ ↓ d. iv. Reduplicated form HHSH O u↓O u death ↓ c. iii. Reduplicated form LHLL ground sacrifice a kind of musical instrument ↓ Reduplicated form HHSH ↓ very high ↓ ↓ irons moneys If the base tones are HL, the tones are fully copied into the reduplicant, as in: Base HL /akwa/ cloth /mba/ town u /nd/ life /ose/ pepper uo /l/ house Reduplicated form HLHL /akwaakwa/ /mbamba/ xx ndnd/ /osoose/ uouo /ll/ cloths towns greenish peppery houses 342 Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo The following principles guide the above noun tonal reduplication rules: A. In noun reduplication, identical inter-morphemic tones are not allowed between reduplicative junctures. In situations where there may be identical tones at the reduplicative junctures, there would be an insertion of a non-identical floating low tone to bridge the sequence. This principle is applicable to the nouns with HH and LL tones. For a HH noun, we can illustrate with Fig 1: H H H H  i s i H H ↓H H H H (L) H H is i  i si isi isi i si Fig 1 shows that where we have a sequence of High tones between junctures, a floating low tone needs to be inserted between the boundary. The floating low tone links to the right, that is to base. The linking makes the segment to have a glide tone of a floating low tone and a high tone. This kind of glide results in a down-stepped high tone. Hence a noun with two high tones has the reduplicated form as HHHH. B. On the other hand, a noun with two low tones can be illustrated with Fig 2. Fig 2 L L L L L L (H)L L  udu udu L H L L  udu u du ud u u d u In 2 above, due to the sequence of low tones at the juncture, a floating high tone is introduced to block the series of low tones. Unlike the floating low tone (that links to the leftmost base to form a glide), the floating high tone must be anchored. That is, it must appear on a segment closest to it on the base. Thus, it displaces the last low tone of the reduplicant. Hence, we have the LL noun reduplication as LHLL. C. It is ill formed to have in noun reduplication, the structure where a high tone and a low tone at the reduplication boundary. Thus, *LH#LH. Though this structure obeys principle A, it is not acceptable in noun reduplication. This form has been explained in Nwachukwu (1995), that a low tone between high tones must be raised to a downstep. However, we want to illustrate the mechanism that enables us to get the low tone raised, as in: 3 L H L H L H L H  ol e ol e = o lo ole L H H H   L H H H ol o o le L H LH H  olo ole Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo 343 In Fig 3, since LHLH is disallowed in noun reduplication, the structure sought for a way of making it acceptable. The acceptance is possible if the rightward H tone is spread to the low tone so that the LH glide would become a downstep. Hence the LHLH structure becomes LHHH. D. Only one downstep tone is allowed in reduplication. Hence, a floating low tone of the downstep is not copied into the reduplicant. Given this principle, where the input tone is a high tone and a downstep tone, the language seeks for a way of having one downstep tone. This it does as illustrated in Fig 4. Fig 4 H LH H LH LH H H H  ego eg o H H (L) H H  ege ego ege ego H H ↓H H ege ego In 4 above, since it is inappropriate to have two downsteps in reduplication. In other to avoid that, the downsteps first metathesis with the high tones such that we have LH H/LH H. In the Igbo language, a downstep tone never begins a word. Therefore, either a low tone or a high tone is deleted so that the word will be well formed. Since downstep is a variant of a high tone, it will be inappropriate to have a high tone deleted. Hence, a low tone is deleted, leaving the reduplication as H H/ LH H. That is H H / S H. E. The structure HL is copied exactly into the reduplicant. Thus: Fig. 5 H L H L H L H L   l  l  l  l Considering 5, it obeys all the above four principles. Thus, it is able to copy the tone of the base exactly into the reduplicant. Observe that this principle violets the rule in Nwachukwu (1995) that any low tone between high tones be raised to a downstep. The reason may be that tone rules in reduplication and in associative constructions are not exactly the same. The above principles can be translated into the following constraints: 6 i. OCP: Obligatory Contour Principle states that identical inter-juncture tones are not allowed. ii. *(H): A floating high tone must be parsed/anchored. Thus, Parse: (H). iii. ALIGN R (H); Base [Right]. A floating high tone must be aligned to the rightmost base. 344 Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo iv. * … LH #LH… It is ill-formed to have the structure … LH # LH… in noun reduplication. v. * … (L) H, (L) H: Series of floating tones are not allowed in reduplication. In noun reduplication, the violation of OCP leads to (i) insertion, (ii) delinking and, (iii) relinking. ALIGN R[RED H, Base L]: Align reduplicant tone right. The high tone on rightmost part of the reduplicant should be aligned to the leftmost part of the base. Hence we refer to it as ALIGN R MAXBR [T]: Every tone (T) of the base must appear in the reduplicant. MAXIO [T]: The tone of the input must appear in the base. ** * * ** ** ** * ** ** ** *HL ** *L/H * *H2 DEPBRTONE ALIGN R *LH/LH ** * * ** *LH * * * HH/HH HH/H H HL/HH LL/HH  HH/HH LH/HH g.  HH/HH h.   HH/HH i. HH/LL j.  HH/LH k. LH/LH MAXBR a. b.  c. d. e.  f.  HH OCP RED MAXIO TONE Tableau 1 * * * * * ** * * * In the above table, candidate (g) is the optimal candidate. It violates MAXBR because the tonal copying is not total. It obeys the principles of tonal copying stipulated above. * * * ALIGN R *HL *L/H *H2 *LH\LH DEPBRTONE LL/LL HL/LL LH/LL LH/LL MAXBR TONE a. b. c.  d.  *LH R OCP MAXIO TONE Tableau 2 * * * * * * Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo 345 e. f. g. h. i. j. LL/HL LLHH LL/LH LL/HH LL/HH LH/LH   * ** * ** ** * * * * ** * ** ** * * * * * ** * ** ** * In the above table, candidate (c) is the winner. It introduced a high tone at the morpheme juncture to block a sequence of low tones. ALIGN R *HL *L/H *H2 *LH/LH * * * * DEPBRTONE HH/HH HL/HH HH/HH LH/HH HL/HH * HH/HH HH/HH * HH/LH HL/HH MAXBR a.   b.  c.   d.  e.  f.  g.   h.  i.  *LH HH OCP RED-  MAX10TONE Tableau 3 * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In the above tableau, candidate (g) emerges the winner. It is total tonal reduplication. It only violates base-reduplicant constraints. a. a a LH/LH b. a a HL/LH c. a a LL/LH d.  a a LH/LH e.  a a HH/LH f.  a a LH/HH * * * * * * DEPBRTONE MAXBR ALIGN R *HL *L/H *H2 *LH/LH *LH a LH OCP RED- MAX10TONE Tableau 4 346 Mbah: Tonal Features of Noun Reduplication in Igbo g. h. i. j. a  aLH/HH a LH/LL a aLH/HL a aLH/HH * * * * * The above tableau shows that canditate (f) is the optimal candidate. It is partial tonal reduplication that conforms to principle (c) above. *HL ALIGN R MAXIO *L/H *H2 HL/HL HH/HL LH/HL HL/LH HL/HH LH/HH *LH/LH a.  b. c. d. e. f.  OCP *LH HL DEPBRTONE RED- MAXBR -TONE Tableau 5 * * * * * The above tableau shows that candidate (a) is the optimal candidate. It is the only candidate that satisfies the base-reduplicant constraint MAXBR. Since MAXBR is an undominated constraint, the type of tonal reduplication that emerges is full reduplication. Conclusion The study has examined the behaviour of tone when a certain group of nouns have undergone the process of reduplication. It observed that where the tone of a noun is a low low tone, the tone that emerges in the reduplicated form is low, high, low, and low. If the base tone of a noun bears two high tones, the reduplicated form bears high, high, downstep, and high tones. Low high nouns become low, high, downstep, and high when reduplicated. On the other hand, a noun with the tones of High downstep becomes high, high, downstep, and high in reduplication. It is only the nouns with high low tones that have its tone exactly repeated in reduplication. With these principles of tonal behaviour in reduplication, some constraints were formulated. The formulated constraints were ranked and the result proved that by promotion of input-output MAXIO, partial reduplication of tone becomes the outcome. 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