Alan Yu
UC Berkeley
 

In recent years, infixation research has consistently recognized two types
of infixation: Infixation via Prosodic Displacement (a.k.a. Displacement
Theory) and Infixation via Affixation to a Prosodic Constituent (i.e.
prosodic subcategorization). According the Displacement Theory of
infixation, an infix is analyzed as underlyingly either a prefix or a
suffix. It 'migrates' inward by acquiescing to prosody optimizing forces
(e.g., coda minimization as in Tagalog -um- infixation (McCarthy & Prince 1993).
Prosodic subcategorization, on the other hand, licenses an affix to
subcategorize for a prosodic constituent (e.g., the stressed foot) as the
base of affixation.
 

In this talk, I will present arguments against the Displacement Theory of
Infixation, based on both theory-internal evidence and the results of a
cross-linguistic survey of infixation patterns. I then motivate a unified
account of infixation that advocates treating infixation as a matter of
phonological subcategorization. I will exemplified this
novel approach with a detail study of Katu infixing nominalization.

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