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register, or at the tonal feature level, producing words which share either the tonal register or the tonal melody. Using the geometry of RTT allows three types of plateaus to exist on tonal features as opposed to
using traditional Autosegmental Phonology which allows only one type of plateau for tonal features, i.e., a complete tonal plateau.
5.2.4 Many-to-One
Many-to-one mapping is defined by Yip 2002: 65 as multiple tonal features being hosted by a single anchor. This tonal characteristic is exemplified through tonal contours. Any time more than one tone
is expressed on a single syllable many-to-one mapping occurs. Contours that occur word medially are stable in that they are expressed whether the word they occur in is in isolation or various contexts. As was
introduced in §5.2.1, there are also examples of contours consisting of two tonal values that are stable in mono-morphemic situations even when they occur word finally. All of these contours are examples of
many-to-one mapping.
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The Low to Mid contour is an example of many-to-one mapping. The morpheme in 13 shows a single TBU which has been linked to two tonal registers and one tonal melody.
13 One TBU linked to two tonal registers: the L-M
2
contour l h
L
na ‘mother’
This example demonstrates a contour which moves between the two tonal registers while maintaining a L tonal melody. There are also examples of TBUs which are linked to multiple tonal melodies while
maintaining one tonal register. The Mid to High contour is such an example 14.
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Recall from §5.2.1 that the M
2
-H and L-M
2
tones may have only one link in the UR, more data is needed to confirm this; however, considering these contour tones as pre-linked units in the UR is also a valid
interpretation.
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14 One TBU with two tonal melodies the M
2
-H contour h
L H nda
‘good’ The morpheme in 14 is always expressed as a rising tone; there are two tonal melodies, L and H,
expressed on one TBU with a single h-register feature. The above examples involve either multiple registers over one melody 13 or multiple tonal
melodies over one register 14. There are also examples which involve a change in both the tonal melody and the tonal register which therefore require two completely separate tonal root nodes such as the Mid to
Mid-High contour M
2
-M
1
. This contour has been shown in §5.2.1 to demonstrate tonal mobility in
context; however, in isolation it surfaces as a contour. An example is given in 15. 15
One TBU with two TRNs, the M
2
-M
1
contour h l
L H hõ
‘six’ The contour in 15 requires two tonal root nodes because there is no shared information on either the tonal
melody plane or the tonal register plane to warrant a shared node. Contour tones involving two different tones are common in Soyaltepec Mazatec. More rarely the
situation arises in which morphemes abut and three tones become associated to one syllable at the surface level. This is the most complex example of a many-to-one relationship that I have encountered in
Soyaltepec Mazatec. One scenario which produces this situation occurs at the morpheme boundary when a morpheme with an immobile rising contour tone is combined with a morpheme which contains a Low tone
that preferentially attaches to the stem as was demonstrated in §5.2.2 above. This type of example also
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demonstrates that there is no restriction requiring two tones per TBU in Soyaltepec Mazatec.
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The example in 16 shows the this type of combination. In 16a the underlying structure of each morpheme is
shown. Recall that the M
2
-H tones must have at least one if not both tones linked in the UR. In order for the second morpheme to host a Low tone that will preferentially link to the stem, it must have a tone which is
linked in the UR as well. 16b shows that the Low tone must link to the stressed syllable to its left because the TBU to its right is already associated to a TRN. After the initial association occurs, the OCP demands
merger of the three L tonal melodies that are now associated to adjacent syllables of the same grammatical word which produces the surface structure 16c.
16 Three tonal registers associated to the same syllable:
na˩˧˩-ri˧ ‘your mother’ a. Underlying Representations
l h l
h L
L L
na -ri
‘mother’ ‘your’
b. Tonal association l h
l h L L
L
na ri
c. OCP merger: surface form l h
l h
L na
ri ‘your mother’
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Although it may reinforce the idea that three tones are limited to stressed syllables which is a separate matter.
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The unbound morpheme in 16a is a single syllable that hosts two register designations which in itself is already an example of a many-to-one relationship. The bound possessive morpheme is a suffix which
contains a Low tone that links to the stem to which the morpheme attaches. This is considered to be a left- floating Low tone. When the structures unite in 16b, the TRN from the Low tone forms an association
with the TBU of the unbound morpheme which is indicated through the dashed line. When this association occurs, features with identical values become adjacent within a grammatical word which suggests that
feature merger must occur to satisfy the OCP. In 16c the fully fused grammatical word is represented. The first syllable hosts three tonal register features which are expressed in linear order each combining with the
designated L tonal melody to form an expressible tone, i.e., Low, Mid, Low ˩˧˩ on this one syllable.
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This type of bidirectional contour is rare in Soyaltepec Mazatec, only occurring at morpheme boundaries. In the final surface form, the first syllable clearly exhibits a many-to-one relationship with respect to
register. The two syllables share the low tonal melody, exhibiting the one-to-many relationship discussed in §5.2.3. This disyllabic word contains a rising then falling, bidirectional contour on the first syllable and a
level tone on the second which is an apparent violation of a left to right UAC. The many-to-one relationship occurs in Soyaltepec Mazatec on the level of the tonal register 13,
16, the tonal melody 14 and the tonal root node 15. The employment of Snider’s geometry allows this complexity.
5.2.5 Tonal Morphemes
