Linguists tend to believe that total complexity of human languages is invariable. In order to test this hypothesis empirically, we need to calculate the complexity in different domains of language structure: phonology, morphology, syntax, etc. In this paper I provide some guidelines for documenting tonal systems and evaluating their complexity. I…

Linguists generally acknowledge that there exists an inevitable inter-relationship between different levels of linguistic analysis--phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Various linguistic labels are used to describe such a link. In particular, there exists a bridge between the phonology and morphology of particular languages.…

Argues for underlying tones as opposed to accentual diacritics or metrical representations in Standard Lithuanian nominals. Support for tonal representations come from analyses of (1) the general status of diacritic accents, (2) tonal stability under segment-deletion and demorification in Lithuanian, and (3) data from a Zhemayt dialect. (Contains…