Phonological Argumentation - Essays on Evidence and Motivation - Steve Parker

Phonological Argumentation - Essays on Evidence and Motivation - Steve Parker

5 Morpheme-specific phonology: Constraint indexation and inconsistency resolution

Phonological Argumentation - Essays on Evidence and Motivation - Steve Parker

Joe Pater [+-]
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Joe Pater is Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his PhD in 1997 from McGill University, and specializes in phonological theory, phonological acquisition and learning theory

Description

This chapter argues that exceptions and other instances of morphemespecific phonology are best analyzed in Optimality Theory (OT) in terms of lexically indexed markedness and faithfulness constraints. This approach is shown to capture locality restrictions, distinctions between exceptional and truly impossible patterns, distinctions between blocking and triggering, and distinctions between variation and exceptionality. It is contrasted with other OT analyses of exceptions, in particular those that disallow lexically indexed markedness constraints and those that invoke lexically specified rankings (that is, cophonologies). The data discussed are from Assamese, Finnish and Yine (formerly Piro). A learnability account of the genesis of lexically indexed constraints is also provided, in which indexation is used to resolve inconsistency detected by Tesar and Smolensky’s (1998, 2000) Recursive Constraint Demotion algorithm.

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Citation

Pater, Joe. 5 Morpheme-specific phonology: Constraint indexation and inconsistency resolution. Phonological Argumentation - Essays on Evidence and Motivation. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 123-154 Jan 2010. ISBN 9781845532215. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=29396. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.29396. Jan 2010

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