My research focuses on understanding the differences between different types of postsyntactic operations. I split my time between phonology and morphosyntax.
My phonological research examines the typology of metathesis and copy-epenthesis. In my own work on Uab Meto (Austronesian, West Timor), I argue that productive synchronic metathesis is gestural overlap, not true transposition. In my dissertation, I examine copy-epenthesis patterns, and show that these are also best understood as gestural lengthening rather than true copying. I claim that this supports a view of phonology where transposition and copying are not available in phonological GEN. This predicts that transposition and copying should never occur in response to purely phonotactic pressures.
In morphology, my research focuses on how morphemes come into their surface order. I am interested in clitic ordering and the implementation of person hierarchies. I am also interested in positional asymmetries in infixation.
I enjoy addressing theoretical questions via in-depth case studies on understudied languages. Some languages I’ve worked on lately:
Uab Meto (Austronesian; fieldwork in Indonesia):
- Metathesis
- Consonant epenthesis
- Syntax-phonology interface
- Nominal morphosyntax
Yulparija (Wati, Pama-Nyungan; archival documentation work):
- Second position clitics
- Person discontinuities
- Ergativity
- Syntactic microvariation
Burmese (elicitation work in NYC)
- Tone-vowel interactions (in joint work with Chiara Repetti-Ludlow)
- Minor syllables
Ewe (elicitation work in NYC)
- Onset quality and tone
Khmer (elicitation work in NYC)
- Infixation and minor syllables
Kate Mooney 