OCP effects in Dagaare

Abstract

In tone languages, adjacent high tones are often avoided. Different languages resolve HH sequences in different ways, but different resolutions can be found even in one and the same language. In Dagaare (Gur, Niger-Congo) the possible resolutions are dissimilation, downstep, merger, or no resolution, depending on the morpholexical environment. We present evidence that a HH sequence is resolved only within a tonal foot and account for the different resolution patterns by assuming that morphemes specify partial rankings: The tone of the complex word is the concatenation of the tones of its constituent morphemes, evaluated by the union of their rankings.