| ROA: | 425 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Morphologically conditioned phonological alternations |
| Authors: | Arto Anttila |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 44 |
| Abstract: | Morphologically conditioned phonological alternations Arto Anttila Boston University and National University of Singapore Alternations that are partly phonologically, partly morphologically conditioned are a central problem in phonological theory. In Optimality Theory, two types of solutions have been proposed: morphologically specialized phonological constraints (interface constraints) and different constraint rankings for different morphological categories (cophonologies). This paper presents empirical evidence that distinguishes between these two hypotheses. Stem-final vowel alternations in Finnish are governed by a mixed set of conditions that range from purely phonological to morphological and lexical, from iron-clad exceptionless regularities to quantitative tendencies. Using a standard dictionary as the data base, we show that phonological conditioning plays the dominant role, but in cases where phonology underdetermines the output, morphological conditioning may emerge. We then show that partial ordering of constraints, commonly used to model variation, extends to morphological conditioning as well. The partial ordering model is a restrictive version of the cophonology model which is thus supported. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |