A Remark on the Ordering of Impoverishment Rules: Differences between Taos and Basque

Abstract Working within the framework of Distributed Morphology, Arregi & Nevins (2012) proposed a modular architecture for the post-syntax in which metathesis follows impoverishment, and syntagmatic impoverishment (impoverishment conditioned by the features of more than one node) follows paradigmatic impoverishment (impoverishment conditioned by the features of only one node). Their analysis is supported by data from Basque. The morphological output of Taos (Kiowa-Tanoan) verbal agreement prefixes can be accounted for in this framework. However, not all divisions of labour are supported. While the claim that impoverishment precedes metathesis is upheld, the claim that paradigmatic rules of impoverishment universally precede syntagmatic ones is shown to be false. If the data of Taos is to be accounted for in this framework, I argue that it must be the case that paradigmatic and syntagmatic impoverishment operations can interleave.