Hierarchies and Portmanteaux of Karuk Pronominal Affixes with Distributed Morphology and without Hierarchies or Portmanteaux

The pronominal verb affixes of Karuk have traditionally been identified as portmanteaux, expressing features of both subject and object. Following more recent approaches, I analyze each affix as reflecting a single referent, within the theoretical framework provided by Distributed Morphology (DM). I compare different ways DM could explain the Karuk pattern, but settle on five rules of Impoverishment, which all loosely conform to universal prominence hierarchies for person and number features. Noting the pattern’s only-partial conformity to these hierarchies, I argue for a formal analysis that does not incorporate feature hierarchies as a theoretical object.