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ABOUT
ABOUT
I am Katie McCann ['kej.ti mə.'kæn], currently employed as a post-doctoral research fellow in the research program 'cyclic optimization' in the project `phonological and structural correlates of affix orders' at Leipzig University.
You can find my CV here (last updated May 2026).
My main focus lies within phonology and morphology and the architecture of the phonology-morphology interface.
Contact: katie.mc_cann [at] uni-leipzig.de
Photo: Universität Leipzig / Anke Steinberg
NEWS
My paper An illusory violation of the Affix Ordering Generalisation in Tigrinya is published in Vol. 47 (2026) Proceedings of GLOW47 [https://doi.org/10.11576/glow-1259]
My paper, co-authored with Jochen Trommer, titled No Additional Strata, No Loop! A Reanalysis of Malayalam Compound Morphophonology is available Online Early in Linguistic Inquiry [https://doi.org/10.1162/LING.a.545]
INTERESTS
My main research interest lies in affix ordering and its interactions with phonology. I am generally intersted in all things relevant to the morphology-phonology interface.
I recently defended my dissertation titled "Flexible Phonological Coherence in Affixes - A Stratal Assproach" (please send me an e-mail if you are interested in reading the submitted version of the dissertation). In the dissertation I investigate the cross-linguistic occurences of chameleon affixes (= affixes that are phonologically cohering and non-cohering, i.e. flexibly cohering, depending on their morphosyntactic environment) and propose an analysis of morphological optimisation that captures the attested behaviour of chameleon affixes couched in a stratal framework.
Other research interests include but are not limited to: cyclicity, gradient symbolic representations in phonology and morphology, autosegmental phonology, compound phonology.
PAPERS
PAPERS
[submitted] Chameleon Affixes in Sekani Produce Strictly Ordered Stratal Domains. submitted to WCCFL 43 Proceedings. [article]
2026. An illusory violation of the Affix Ordering Generalisation in Tigrinya. In Adelaide Banafo, Ai Chen, Katharina Hartmann, Anke Himmelreich, Jana-Elina Jordan, Farbod Khouzani, Viktor Köhlich, Johannes Mursell, Kwaku Sasu and Golshan Shakeebaee (eds.) Vol. 47 (2026): Proceedings of GLOW 47. [https://doi.org/10.11576/glow-1259]
2025. No additional stratal, no loop! A re-analysis of Malayalam compound morphophonology. [with Jochen Trommer] Online Early: Linguistic Inquiry. [article] [https://doi.org/10.1162/LING.a.545]
2025. Encoding affix predictability in Harmonic Serialism in Morphology derives the order of affixes in Urarina. In: Gereon Müller (ed.) Morphology by serial optimization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins [article] [https://doi.org/10.1075/la.289.07mcc]
[under review] Phonological underspecification gives rise to morphotactic and phonological exceptionalities in Mandan. Manuscript available in Radical: A Journal of Phonology. [article]
[draft] 2025. Unifying compound specific phonological effects in Malayalam - a case for moraic affixation. [with Jochen Trommer] [article]
TALKS
TALKS
2026 / 09 First suffix come, first suffix served. Tone spreading and polarity in Anal. Talk at: Mirco-Workshop on Dymanic Domains at the Universität Leipzig. [with Galina Sim] [slides]
2025 / 12 Solving an ordering paradox in the morpho-phonology of Tigrinya. Invited talk at: Linguistic Lounge at the Universität Duisburg Essen.
2025 / 04 Chameleon affixes in Sekani produce strictly layered stratal domains. Talk at: WCCFL 43 at the University of Washington, Seattle. [slides]
2025 / 03 An illusory violation of the affix ordering generalisation in Tigrinya. Talk at: 47. GLOW Conference in Frankfurt am Main. [slides]
2025 / 03 Chameleon affixes require cyclic phonology yet parallel morphology. Talk at: 47. Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaften in Mainz. [slides]
2024 / 10 Blending into your environment. Introducing chameleon affixes. Talk at: Workshop: Nonuniformity in morphophonology across frameworks at the University of Trier. [slides]
2024 / 02 Gemination in Malayalam compounds is morphological and bounded by prosodic structure. Talk at: OCP21 in Leipzig. [with Jochen Trommer] [slides]
2023 / 05 Phonological exceptions are morphotactic exceptions given phonological underspecification. Talk at: 30th mfm in Manchester. [slides]
2023 / 04. Phonological exceptions are morphotactic exceptions given phonological underspecification. Talk at: GLOW46 in Austria.
2022 / 09. Verbal number suppletion in nominalizations. Talk at: LAGB 2022 Annual Meeting in Belfast [with Leonie Barabas-Weil, Nadja Fiebig, Armel Jolin, Maria Kouneli, Robin Ortlepp and Helene Streffer] [PDF]
2022 / 05. Verbal number suppletion in nominalizations. Talk at: GGS 2022: 46th GGS Conference in Stuttgart. [with Leonie Barabas-Weil, Nadja Fiebig, Armel Jolin, Maria Kouneli, Robin Ortlepp and Helene Streffer]
MANUSCRIPTS AND MATERIAL FROM PREVIOUS WORK
MANUSCRIPTS AND MATERIAL FROM PREVIOUS WORK
2022. Database on exceptional hiatus resolution as part of my M.A. thesis. [database in google tables]
2022. A Typology of exceptional hiatus resolution. M.A. thesis. [PDF]
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