Prefixation and Reduplication in Malay: an Optimality- Theoretical Account Sharifah Raihan Syed Jaafar B.A (Linguistics), M.A (Linguistics), National University of Malaysia, Malaysia A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics and English Language Lancaster University United Kingdom March 2011 ProQuest Number: 11003469 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11003469 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the morphology-phonology interface in Malay. The work is largely a corpus-based reanalysis of prefixation and reduplication. Based on two large different written corpora of Standard Malay (henceforth SM), the analysis permits us to make reliable and robust generalizations about how the language actually works. The data reveal that the language has a distinct co-existing phonological system. I will show that these co-existent grammars can be handled with Optimality Theory (henceforth OT), specifically in co-phonologies. The reanalysis of prefixation places Malay in a wider context and examines, cross-linguistically, issues related to voicing and nasality. It is shown that nasal substitution, which is regularly used to eliminate nasal and voiceless obstruent clusters, fails to occur in some prefixed words. In the analysis, I propose that non­ native words are not subject to the same phonological requirements as those imposed on native words. The constraint rankings must therefore be different from those found in native words which result in the blocking of nasal substitution at prefix-root junctures. The application of nasal substitution at prefix-prefix junctures is mainly determined by morphological factors rather than phonetic factors, due to a morphology-phonology interface constraint, i.e. EDGE-INTEGRITY. The investigation of reduplication deals with total, partial and affixal reduplication. A recent theory of prosodic morphology - namely the Morpheme- Based Template or MBT (Downing 2006), motivated within OT (Prince & Smolensky 1993) - is applied to organize the morphological and prosodic factors that condition the size of prosodic morphemes (ibid.: 1). In the analysis, I propose that total and ii affixal reduplication are best treated as compounding, rather than affixation, due to the disyllabic minimality condition. Considering the Perak dialect, light and heavy reduplication have been captured by associating each morphological construction with a different co-phonology. This study also examines dialectal variation, comparing SM with three non­ standard dialects with respect to prefixation. The analysis discovers some significant facts about the language. Since both voiceless/voiced obstruents undergo nasal substitution, the *NQ constraint has been replaced by a CRISP-EDGE[ g ] constraint. Nasal deletion and nasalisation are also the strategies used to eliminate nasal and voiceless obstruent clusters. The different strategies applied can be satisfactorily explained in OT with its variable constraint rankings. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe my deepest gratitude to a number of generous people who have largely given their support and contribution in completing this thesis. First and foremost I offer my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Francis X. Katamba, who has patiently supported and guided me throughout my thesis journey. I would also like to thank Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (The Institute of Language and Literature) for allowing me to access their corpus data. I am also grateful to Associate Professor Ajid Che Kob, Associate Professor Dr. Mohd Fadzeli Jaafar and Mr. Zulkifli Ahmad for their contribution to my data supplement for the dialectal study. Without their cooperation I could not have obtained such pertinent data for my analysis. Special thanks go to Dr. Andrew Hardie, from Lancaster University, for his invaluable assistance with the corpus software, AntConc. His explanations of the use of the software have been much appreciated as this has made my analysis work much easier. Not forgotten are Professor Dr. Zaharani Ahmad, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities from the National University of Malaysia (UKM), for his kind advice and encouragement throughout my study, and all the lecturers in the Linguistics Department at UKM. I would like to dedicate my heartfelt thanks to my lovely parents, Syed Jaafar and Ramlah Saadon, and to my sisters, Sharifah Khairul Adibah, Sharifah Nabihah and Sharifah Nawal, for their enduring love and continuous support. Without them, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible. iv I am indebted to the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and the UKM for awarding me the SLAB scholarship and study leave to pursue my doctoral studies at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Four conditions of melody linking in autosegmental phonology. Table 2 Five basic tenets of OT. Table 3 Constraints operating in Japanese vocabulary. Table 4 The degree of obedience to active constraints between native and other lexicon strata in the vocabulary of Japanese. Table 5: The differences in nasal and voiceless obstruent clusters root- intemally in SM and some of the dialects of Malay: Perak, Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and NS. Table 6 Nasal and voiceless obstruent clusters in Perak. Table 7 Obedience to and violation of CRISP-EDGE [a]. vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The Lexical Strata in Japanese Vocabulary. Figure 2 DBP Corpus Database System. Figure 3 Categories of the lexicon for Malay. Figure 4 Monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic roots. Figure 5 The number of voiced and voiceless obstruents following nasal segments in /m9p+/ and /psg+/. Figure 6 The number of /maq+/ and /psq+/ prefixes attached to sonorant initial roots. Figure 7 The number of /moq+por/ and /pop+por/ multiple prefixes. Figure 8 Disyllabic and monosyllabic roots in total reduplication in SM. Figure 9 Rhyming and chiming reduplication in SM. Figure 10 The amount of monosyllabic total reduplication in SM. LIST OF MAPS Malay dialects in the Malay Peninsula. The areas where the three dialects of Malay - Perak, Kelantan and NS - are spoken. ABBREVIATIONS OT Optimality theory GTT Generalised Template Theory PBT Prosodic-Based Template MBT Morpheme-Based Template DBP Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (The Institute of Language & Literature) UKM University Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) SM Standard Malay NS Negeri Sembilan PD Perak dialect ACT. ACTIVE PRF. PREFIX SUF. SUFFIX NOM NOMINAL VERBL VERBALISER CAUS. CAUSATIVE LOC. LOCATIVE ADJ. ADJECTIVE STEMEX STEM EXTENDER RED REDUPLICANT NAS ASS NASAL ASSIMILATION UG UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR Table of Contents ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................Ill 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Introduction to M a l a y ............................................................................................... 3 1.3 Statement of the problem ...........................................................................................8 1.3.1 Rule-based analysis ...................................................................................................8 1.3.2 Autosegmental analysis ........................................................................................20 1.4 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 25 1.5 Research g o a l s ............................................................................................................. 27 1.6 Organisation of this thesis......................................................................................28 2. LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................................29 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................29 2.2 T h e o r e t ic a l f r a m e w o r k ........................................................................................... 31 2.2.1 Rule-based analysis ................................................................................................32 2.2.2 Non-linear autosegmental phonology ...............................................................34 2.2.3 O T ...............................................................................................................................38 2.2.4 Generalized Template Theory - GTT ...............................................................49 2.3 M a l a y P h o n o l o g y S c h o l a r s h i p ...........................................................................