Hybrid falling tones in Limbum

This paper examines the interaction between lexical tone and phrase-level into-
nation in Limbum. On the basis of an acoustic study of novel data, we claim that
Limbum has a phrase-final low boundary tone (L%) that interacts with lexical tones
to give rise to hybrid falling tones: tones whose specifications are partially lexical
and partially phrasal. We argue that hybrid tones and other tonal processes in Lim-
bum are readily captured in an analysis that assumes tonal geometry and empty
nodes. We propose to represent L% as a floating low register feature (l) that links
to lexical tonal root nodes, giving rise to various surface patterns depending on the
tonal specifications of the root nodes. Our account supersedes previous analyses
in terms of tone sandhi rules.