| ROA: | 246 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Restrictions on direction of voicing assimilation |
| Authors: | Linda Lombardi |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 14 |
| Abstract: | Restrictions on direction of voicing assimilation Linda Lombardi University of Maryland, College Park In Lombardi (1996) I propose a set of constraints within the framework of Optimality Theory that accounts for the cross- linguistic patterning of laryngeal neutralization and regressive voice assimilation in obstruent clusters. A positional faithfulness constraint is crucial toi the analysis, demanding faithfulness to the voicing of a released onset consonant (the position of the Laryngeal Constraint of Lombardi 1991, 1995). The interaction of positional faithfulness and markedness (*Lar) gives laryngeal neutralization. Regressive assimilation is a result of the interaction of positional faithfulness with a phonetically motivated constraint preferring adjacent obstruents to agree in voicing. The assimilation constraint is not inherently directional; regressive direction comes from the interaction of this constraint with positional faithfulness. These basic constraints predict that voicing assimilation will always be regressive, which it is in the vast majority of cases, but cases of progressive assimilation do exist. In this paper I show that such cases occur only in limited environments that can be shown to involve the activity of additional constraints outranking the basic positional faithfulness constraints. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |