ROA: | 207 |
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Title: | Surface Opacity of Metrical Structure in Optimality Theory |
Authors: | Rene Kager |
Comment: | 31 Full paper version of handout from Tilburg Derivational Residue conference, October 1995(ROA #93a) |
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Abstract: | Surface opacity of metrical structure in Optimality Theory Rene Kager University of Utrecht This paper (originally presented at the Tilburg conference on "The Derivational Residue in Phonology", October 1995; see handout ROA-93a) proposes a correspondence analysis of cyclic stress-related alternations in Palestinian and Tripoli Arabic. While similar in spirit to analyses to analyses of syncope in Palestinian by Kenstowicz (1995) and Steriade (1996), this paper covers additional interactions with vowel epenthesis, as well as a more detailed analysis of the stress system. Section 2 focusses on data from Palestinian Arabic that involve opacity of syncope with respect to surface stress patterns, comparing derivational theory and OT with respect to transderivational effects. The notion of 'base' in B/O correspondence (a compositionally related output form) predicts morphological relationships under which two forms display phonological identity effects. This notion of 'base' predicts that transderivational relationships involve output forms, a prediction which does not follow from derivational theory. Section 3 extends the analysis to a-syncope in Tripoli Arabic. Its most interesting aspect is a triple interaction of a-syncope, i-syncope, and i-epenthesis. The discussion focusses on the possibility that a form's surface phonology reflects both 'faithfulness' constraints and paradigmatic constraints. This argues for parallel evaluation of output forms, in the sense that both base and input are accessible simultaneously. Parallelism is shown by the activity, within a single constraint hierarchy, of constraints evaluating I/O correspondence and B/O correspondence. Section 4 discusses interactions of purely metrical constraints and correspondence constraints, on the basis of the Palestinian Arabic stress system. It integrates metrical constraints into a ranking together with the correspondence constraints which were argued for in Section 2 on the basis of vowel-zero alternations and base-identity effects. This analysis predicts a property that caused troubles to earlier derivational analyses: epenthetic vowels may be stressed 'under duress', due to foot well-formedness. |
Type: | Paper/tech report |
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Article: | Version 1 |