Morphological exceptionality and pathways of change - Multiple exponence in Kiranti

Abstract

This paper presents comparative data from the Kiranti (Tibeto-Burman) languages as evidence for the development of multiple exponence from periphrastic verbs which feature(d) redundant agreement inflection on both main verb and auxiliary and the historical process of coalescence. Multiple exponence is uncommon typologically, and as such is often dismissed in theories of morphology that rely on a one-to-one correspondence between a segmentable piece of a word and the information it encodes (cf. word-and-paradigm theories). I propose the inclusion of well-attested language change processes and uncommon typological data as a desideratum for the construction of robust theories of inflectional morphology.