In Nootka, there is a strategy for forming hypocoristic names, or terms of endearment, from the normal form of the name by a combination of truncation, vowel mutation and affixation. The nature of this formation is highly suggestive of the type of morphology described by many linguists as subtractive. In this paper, however, we will show that what actually occurs is a pattern of template -filling based on the prosodic structure of the language. We will argue that the building of hypocoristic forms is, in fact, highly reminiscent of reduplicative strategies employed in this language as argued for in Stonham 1987 for the closely related Nitinaht language, the difference being that reduplication subsequently concatenates with the structure it has drawn from, while Nootka hypocoristic formation, henceforth H.F., abandons the remainder of the original structure, retaining only the copied portion required for the template. Before investigating the nature of H.F., we will first present certain aspects of Nootka structure which will be important for a clear exposition of the problem.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/227265 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Stonham, John |
| Contributors | Myers, James, Pérez, Patricia E., Stanford University |
| Publisher | Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Relation | Arizona Phonology Conference Vol. 3, Phonology in the Old Pueblo, Coyote Papers |
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