UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 9 (1997)
Monovalency and the status of
RTR
PHILLIP BACKLEY
Cases of ATR harmony are numerous and widely documented in the literature, whereas
languages
in which RTR is harmonically active (e.g. Wolof) have received a good deal less attention. A
description based on the bivalent feature [+/-ATR] is capable of representing both harmony
types,
but fails to encode naturally the clear difference in typological markedness separating the two.
On
the other hand, an Element Theory approach -- employing melodic headship as the basis of
tongue
root distinctions -- is unable to provide an adequate account of RTR harmony without
compromising privativeness. In response, I propose a tier geometry analysis (Backley 1995)
which
succeeds in capturing the alternation facts of both ATR and RTR harmony systems, together
with
the markedness characteristics of each.
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