Understanding Allomorphy - Perspectives from Optimality Theory - Eulàlia Bonet

Understanding Allomorphy - Perspectives from Optimality Theory - Eulàlia Bonet

Allomorphy in OT: The Italian Mobile Diphthongs

Understanding Allomorphy - Perspectives from Optimality Theory - Eulàlia Bonet

Geert Booij [+-]
University of Leiden
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Geert Booij (1947) studied linguistics at the University of Groningen (1965-1971). From 1971 until 1981 he was an Assistant/Associate professor in the Department of Dutch of the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1977. He was a professor of general linguistics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (1981-2005) and at Leiden University (2005-2012). He is now an Emeritus Professor. He is the founder and editor of the book series Yearbook of Morphology and its successor, the journal Morphology, author of The Phonology of Dutch (1995), The Morphology of Dutch (2002), Construction Morphology (2010), and of The Grammar of Words (2005, 20123), all published by Oxford University Press, and of many articles, on phonology and morphology.
Bart van der Veer [+-]
Bart van der Veer (1968) studied in Delft (nursing), Leiden (classical languages), and Antwerpen (Italian and translation studies). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Linguistics at the University of Leiden in 2006, and taught Italian linguistics and translation at the Hoger Instituut for Vertalers and Tolken, Antwerp, and at Leiden University. At present he is employed in the information technology business.

Description

This article deals with a famous case of allomorphy in Italian, the so called mobile diphthongs, a vowel alternation in the roots of inflectionally or derivationally related words. It is argued that the two allomorphs have to be lexically listed. The selection of the right allomorph is performed by the language-specific ranking of a set of universal phonological output constraints, as assumed in Optimality Theory. Proper assumptions about the balance between storage and computation of phonological information, in combination with a model of phonological computation in which allomorphs are listed and a set of ranked output conditions select the optimal allomorph provide an insightful account of the Italian mobile diphthongs, both from a synchronic and a diachronic perspective.

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Citation

Booij, Geert; van der Veer, Bart. Allomorphy in OT: The Italian Mobile Diphthongs. Understanding Allomorphy - Perspectives from Optimality Theory. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 45-69 Jul 2015. ISBN 9781845532970. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=25222. Date accessed: 24 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.25222. Jul 2015

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