Alignment and Adjacency in Optimality Theory:



Evidence from Warlpiri and Arrernte







Lynn Berry











The goal of this thesis is to explore alignment and adjacency of
 

constituents in the framework of Optimality Theory. Under the notion of
 

alignment, certain categories, prosodic and morphological, are required to
 

correspond to certain other categories, prosodic or morphological. The
 

alignment of categories is achieved through the operation of constraints
 

which evaluate the wellformedness of outputs. The constraints on the
 

alignment of categories and the ranking of these constraints are examined
 

with emphasis on two Australian languages, Warlpiri and Arrernte. The aim
 

is to provide an adequate account in the theory of Optimality of the
 

processes of stress, reduplication and vowel harmony evident in the data.  
 





The thesis expands on the range of edges for the alignment of feet. Foot
 

alignment is developed to account for the fact that the edges of
 

intonational phrases, morphemes, and specific morphemes, as well as
 

phonologically specific syllables, play an active role in determining the
 

location of feet. An additional finding is that the location of feet can
 

also be determined by adjacency, resolving conflict between morphological
 

alignment, and ensuring rhythmic harmony. Requirements on adjacency are
 

further supported to account for segmental harmony, where harmony provides
 

evidence for the simultaneous action of segmental and prosodic processes.  
 





The analysis provides a unified account of binary and ternary rhythm
 

recommending modifications to alignment of certain categories, thereby
 

laying the groundwork to deal with variation. The account of variation
 

involves relaxing certain constraints.







In addition, the notion of rhythm is expanded to account for onset
 

sensitivity to stress, with evidence of this sensitivity found in
 

reduplication and allomorphy.







The interaction of prosodic categories with each other and with
 

morphological categories can be directly captured in OT, providing a
 

unified and coherent account of phenomena, some of which were previously
 

seen as exceptions and therefore, unrelated and arbitrary.