Parametric phonology and boundary tonology in Xhosa

Abstract

The fallacious practice of formulating language-particular rules whenever.solving phonological problems has pained phonologists for almost two decades. Prince and Smolensky (1993:1) duly recognise some of the most serious attempts by phunologists to constrain phonological rules; and such a large body of research, dating back to Kisseberth (1972). culminated in the advent of Parametric Phonology (Archangeli and Pulleyblank 1992) and Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince and Smolensky 1993). In this paper I invoke Parametric Theory of Phonology and analyse some of the boundary tonological processes of Xhosa. In particular, I argue that a doubly-linked H tone on the penultimate and final syllables undergoes Left Branch Delinking at the right edge of a Phonological Phrase (PP), and Right Branch Delinking at the right edge of an Intonational Phrase (IP). Finally. I demonstrate that the processes referred to above are derived from a very small number of universal parameters.