| ROA: | 179 |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Emergence of the Unmarked pronoun: Chichewa Pronominals in Optimality Theory |
| Authors: | Joan Bresnan |
| Comment: | 20pp, revised 5/24/97, to appear BLS 23; second file is for A4 (European) sized paper |
| Length: | 20 |
| Abstract: | According to the principle of richness of the base, systematic differences in the lexical inventories of languages cannot simply be derived from language-particular constraints on lexical features or morphology. All such differences must derive from the rerankings of universal constraints. From the perspective of generative syntax, however, this consequence initially seems implausible, even absurd: after all, it has now been almost universally accepted that much of syntax derives from the lexicon, but the lexicon itself has been regarded as the residual core of what cannot be predicted. In defence of this view it is often observed that the inventory of forms present in each language reflects a contingent and individual path of historical change and areal contact. Previous OT syntax work on deriving the lexicon (e.g. Grimshaw 1995 on empty 'do', Legendre, Smolensky, and Wilson 1995 on resumptive pronouns, Grimshaw and Samek-Lodovici 1995 and Samek-Lodovici 1996 on null and expletive pronouns, and Grimshaw 1996 on Romance clitics) does not explicitly address the issues of contingency and markedness taken up here. While the contingency of the lexicon is inescapable, both phonologists and functional linguists have recognized that linguistic inventories also reflect universal patterns of markedness and are often functionally motivated by perceptual and cognitive constraints. I argue in support of this conclusion by showing how different inventories of personal pronouns across languages may be formally derived by the prioritizing of motivated constraints in Optimality Theory. The contingency of the lexicon---exemplified by accidental lexical gaps---then acts as a simple filter on the harmonic ordering derived by the general theory. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |