Rhythmic operations and the role of morphological information: the Tikuna (Ticuna) case

Abstract

Addressing the hypothesis presented in Soares (1992) and later explored in Soares (1999), this article examines the role of morphological information in the construction of rhythm in Tikuna (Ticuna), a tonal language used by a great number of speakers spread over a large area in Amazônia, in South America. In particular, it discusses if there is, or not, a morphological rhythm in the language and how the roots are placed within it – roots which are seen as undeployable, thus different from the radicals (conceived as results of previously categorized roots, either by a phonologically null morpheme, or by an overt affix). Among the most important conclusions is the possibility of dismissing reference to the right margin of the word as being the first prosodic factor in triggering the appearance of binary metric feet in Tikuna. The dismissal is possible both for cases of suffixation, as for those of composition. In suffixation, the appearance of rhythmic stress is possible fostered by some sort of collaboration, from a perceptual point of view, between length/ duration and voice pitch. This collaboration depends on a thoroughly specified tonal layer, which allows for rhythmic operations of a lower level. In composition, there is no perceptual interaction of voice pitch and metrical structure, and there are signs showing that the rhythmic operations here are different from those of a lower level. As to the relationship between morphological constitution and construction of the metric grid, it was noted that, during suffixation, the very subdivision of the durational rhythmic space is coincident with that of one metric foot in stress. It was found that such subdivision closely follows the internal morphological structuring of the word, and the same occurs in the cases of composition.

Keywords

• fonologia
• morfologia
• ritmo
• tikuna
• ticuna
• línguas amazônicas.