“Templatic backcopying” in Guarijio abbreviated reduplication

Although a wide array of phonological properties seem to backcopy in reduplication, it is an open question whether reduplicative templates can backcopy as well. It has been argued that natural languages do not have reduplicative constructions where the base truncates to match the truncated reduplicant (McCarthy & Prince, 1994; McCarthy & Prince, 1999; Spaelti, 1997; inter alia). In Guarijio Abbreviated Reduplication (Miller, 1996), however, both copies of the reduplicative construction truncate, instantiating the pattern that has been claimed not to exist. This paper argues that the Guarijio case fills this typological gap. Although the data can be given a templatic backcopying analysis, this paper defends a Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT) analysis using cophonologies (Inkelas & Zoll, 2005). In MDT, Guarijio Abbreviated Reduplication results from the parallel imposition of a truncating cophonology in each copy of the reduplicative construction. Guarijio Abbreviated Reduplication is predicted to exist by MDT together with other documented cases of parallel phonological modification in reduplication. I am grateful to many people for helpful comments and suggestions, including Isabel Barreras Aguilar, Laura Downing, Nicholas Fleisher, Andrew Garrett, Jason Haugen, Larry Hyman, Yuni Kim, Teresa McFarland, David Mortensen, Mary Paster, Eric Raimy, and Timothy Thornes as well as the audience of the LSA 2005 Annual Meeting in Oakland. I would like to extend a special thanks to Alan Yu for his detailed comments and suggestions to latter versions of this paper. I am particularly indebted to Sharon Inkelas, for her generous advice, feedback, and numerous discussions throughout the development of this paper. I am also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments and criticisms, and especially to Ingo Plag for his patience and detailed suggestions as editor. All remaining errors and omissions are mine. This study was made possible by fellowships by CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, México), the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UCMEXUS) and Fulbright.