| ROA: | 263 |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Minimal Triplet in Altaic: Round Licensing, Harmony, and Bisyllabic Triggers |
| Authors: | Rachel Walker |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 31 |
| Abstract: | A Minimal Triplet in Altaic: Round Licensing, Harmony, and Bisyllabic Triggers Rachel Walker University of California, Santa Cruz This paper presents an optimality-theoretic comparison of three round vowel patterns in the Altaic family. At the core is an analysis of bisyllabic trigger round harmony, a pattern uncovered in recent investigation of Classical Manchu and Oroqen (Tungusic; Zhang 1996). In these languages round spreading takes place only when the first two syllables of a word are round. This study isolates two separate properties of round vowel distribution in bisyllabic trigger patterns: round licensing ([+round] must be linked to the initial syllable) and round spreading. Bisyllabic triggers are derived through a constraint interaction explored here, called 'Parasitic Constraint Satisfaction', in which a given constraint loses to satisfaction of a dominating constraint except when violation of that dominating constraint is independently induced by a third higher-ranked constraint. In the case of bisyllabic trigger round harmony, this kind of interaction is achieved by ranking licensing and spreading separately with respect to a tautosyllabicity constraint on features. More detailed examination of the spreading and licensing requirements finds that they can be analyzed solely in terms of markedness and faith constraints. Positional identity (Beckman 1997) and markedness of feature cooccurrences play a critical role, characterizing the special status of the initial syllable and realizing height stratification of rounding restrictions. The related patterns of simple round licensing and simple round harmony, exhibited in two other Altaic languages (Classical Mongolian and Ulcha), are produced by minimally distinct constraint hierarchies, bearing out the predictions of factorial ranking. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |