Evidence for base-driven alternation in Tgdaya Seediq

Kuo, Jennifer. (in prep). "Evidence for base-driven alternation in Tgdaya Seediq."

Abstract: Standard morphophonological analysis allows composite URs, which "cobble" together information from multiple slots of a paradigm (Kenstowicz and Kisseberth, 1977). In contrast, under the single surface base hypothesis (Albright 2002 et seq.), the input to morphophonology must be a single slot in a paradigm. In this paper, I compare the two approaches by examining verb paradigms in Tgdaya Seediq. In a corpus study of the Seediq lexicon, I find that isolation stems are much more informative than suffixed forms. This asymmetry is argued to support the surface-base approach. Results are further supported in a production experiment, where speakers productively extended alternations from the isolation stem to novel suffixed forms. Interestingly, speakers also over-generalized certain patterns instead of matching lexical statistics. I propose that pattern over-extension is the result of a complexity bias, which cannot be accounted for in existing surface-base models of morphophonological learning. As an alternative, I propose a constraint-based analysis of Seediq alternations, with a complexity learning bias.