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ERIC ED375640: Emai Verbal and Preverbal Tone: Preliminaries.

A study of Emai, an Edoid language of south-central Nigeria, focuses on the system of constraints governing tonal processes. Specifically, it examines the ways in which general processes of low tone raising and high tone lowering are realized in domains constructed by verbs and by preverbal auxiliary and adverbial constituents. Sequentially ordered in some environments, these processes are constrained on one hand by expression of aspectual and polarity categories, ultimately making tonal pattern dependent on an agreement category preceding the verb, and on the other hand, by an inflectional ca…