Microvariations in Harmony and Value-Relativized Parametrization

Abstract

This paper explores a parametric delimitation of the space of possible harmony patterns with respect to the class of feature-values that are visible. Extending the framework of Calabrese (1995), the proposal is that alternating morphemes that are searching for a harmonic value may have access toall-values, only asingle-value, or thecontrastivevalues of the harmonic feature. Two cases of microvariation are explored: [ATR] vowel harmony in Standard Yoruba vs. Ife Yoruba, which reduces to the setting of the relativization-value toallvs.contrastive, and vowel-consonant interactions mediated by [high] harmony in Sanjiazi Manchu vs. Sibe, which reduces to the parametric setting of contrastive vs. single-value.