Kimatuumbi phrasal phonology

Abstract

Kimatuumbi, a Bantu language of Tanzania, has a number of phonological rules applying between words which are sensitive to syntactic structure. Kimatuumbi thus presents a test for theories of the interaction between syntactic structure and phonology. I argue that phonological rules in Kimatuumbi make direct reference to labelled surface syntactic bracketing, contrary to the claims of boundary theories such as Chomsky & Halle (1968) and Selkirk (1974), as well as the prosodic theories of Selkirk (1980), Nespor & Vogel (1982) and Hayes (1984).