| Abstract: | The paper argues that constraints of the familiar LINEARITY type act as arbiters of morpheme position in the phonological component of OT grammars. The utility of the precedence faithfulness approach to morpheme positioning is first shown for Tagalog infixation, and it is argued that a constraint preserving homomorphemic precedence must be active to rule out unattested metathesis. The theory is then compared with its predecessor, parochial alignment. The faithfulness theory is shown to allow the phonological component of grammar to preserve universals of morpheme order in a manner impossible under parochial alignment. The paper goes on to argue that Terena Nasal Harmony, a processual morphology previously accounted for under the alignment theory, is in fact better explained as a Derived Environment Effect captured with a TETU ranking of markedness and precedence faithfulness constraints. |
