Controlling morphosyntactic competition through phonology

Abstract This chapter discusses a case of suspended affixation in Turkish (i.e. the phenomenon in which certain affix(es) is affixed to the periphery of the coordination but interpreted for all coordinates). The main data discussed in this chapter involve stem allomorphy with 1sg and 2sg pronouns, which have an unexpected shape ban-a ‘I-DAT’ (instead of the expected *ben-e). The chapter accounts for two unexpected patterns: (i) contra the literature, the substring ban- is illicit under suspended affixation; and (ii) the pronouns are only acceptable in the first conjunct only with vowel harmonic conjoiners like ve (and) and not ya=da (or). The author modifies the Lexicalization Algorithm (Starke 2020) in order to rule out lexicalization on the grounds of phonotactic reasons. With the help of lexicalization movements, the author achieves the necessary identity match for ellipsis and shows why ban-, ya=da, or pronouns on the second conjunct are banned under suspended affixation.