Positional Faithfulness and Voicing Assimilation in Optimality Theory

2008 ◽  
pp. 343-364
Author(s):  
Linda Lombardi
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Positional Faithfulness

scholarly journals Servigliano revisited: An examination from constraint-based serialism

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCESC TORRES-TAMARIT
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Analytical Problem ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
One Step ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
The One ◽  
Positional Faithfulness ◽  
Inherent Advantage

This paper examines a metaphonic chain shift in Servigliano (Italo-Romance), in which /ɛ, ɔ/ raise to [e, o] and /e, o/ raise to [i, u] when stressed and followed by inflectional /i, u/. The paper also explores pre-tonic metaphony, whereby /ɛ, ɔ/ raise all the way up to [i, u] when followed by a stressed high vowel. First, an analysis of the data is developed using Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (OT-CC), taking as a starting point the parallel OT analysis developed in Mascaró (2011). Second, it is shown that OT-CC causes one analytical problem and no gain in terms of economy. On the one hand, the metaphony-triggering constraint Agree(+high,+ATR) proposed in Mascaró (2011) needs to be split into two different constraints, one of which needs a more complicated formulation that requires a conditional clause. On the other hand, positional faithfulness is needed, as in the parallel OT analysis by Mascaró (2011b), to explain the asymmetry between one-step metaphony and fell-swoop pre-tonic metaphony; OT-CC provides no inherent advantage in explaining this asymmetry.

Direction of Assimilation in Child Consonant Harmony

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 385-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Pater ◽  
Adam Werle
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Standard Analysis ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Consonant Harmony ◽  
Markedness Constraint ◽  
Place Assimilation ◽  
Positional Faithfulness ◽  
Language Assimilation

AbstractIn child language, consonants often assimilate in primary place of articulation across intervening vowels. In adult language, primary place assimilation occurs only between adjacent consonants. In both cases, the first consonant usually assimilates to the second. The standard analysis of directionality of local assimilation in Optimality Theory uses positional faithfulness to protect the second consonant. In this article, it is argued that directionality in child language assimilation is due not to positional faithfulness, but to a markedness constraint that specifies that a consonant preceding a dorsal must agree in place of articulation with it. Along with directionality, this constraint accounts for cases in which dorsals, but not labials, trigger assimilation, which occurs in Korean as well as in child language. Differences between the attested types of assimilation in adult and child language can be explained by differences in the activity of positional faithfulness in the two domains.

Positional faithfulness in Harmonic Grammar

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-159
Author(s):  
MIRANDA MCCARVEL ◽  
AARON KAPLAN
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Harmonic Grammar ◽  
Multiple Contexts ◽  
Positional Faithfulness

In Tamil, coronals are licensed in onsets and initial syllables, exemplifying what Jesney (2011b) calls Licensing in Multiple Contexts (LMC). Jesney shows that while only positional faithfulness produces LMC in Optimality Theory, positional licensing provides a competing analysis of LMC in Harmonic Grammar (HG). This suggests that positional faithfulness may not be necessary in HG. We argue, though, that positional faithfulness remains essential. First, other facts in Tamil are incompatible with the positional licensing approach to LMC, rendering the positional faithfulness alternative the only viable analysis. Second, only with positional faithfulness can certain typological generalizations concerning assimilation between consonants be captured.

Phonologically conditioned allomorphy in the morphology of Surmiran (Rumantsch)

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Morphological Properties ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Extended Sense ◽  
Phonological Rule

Alternations between allomorphs that are not directly related by phonological rule, but whose selection is governed by phonological properties of the environment, have attracted the sporadic attention of phonologists and morphologists. Such phenomena are commonly limited to rather small corners of a language's structure, however, and as a result have not been a major theoretical focus. This paper examines a set of alternations in Surmiran, a Swiss Rumantsch language, that have this character and that pervade the entire system of the language. It is shown that the alternations in question, best attested in the verbal system, are not conditioned by any coherent set of morphological properties (either straightforwardly or in the extended sense of ‘morphomes’ explored in other Romance languages by Maiden). These alternations are, however, straightforwardly aligned with the location of stress in words, and an analysis is proposed within the general framework of Optimality Theory to express this. The resulting system of phonologically conditioned allomorphy turns out to include the great majority of patterning which one might be tempted to treat as productive phonology, but which has been rendered opaque (and subsequently morphologized) as a result of the working of historical change.

The ”true me”—one or many?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Berent ◽  
Melanie Platt
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
True Self ◽  
Behavioral Test ◽  
Brain Scan ◽  
Moral Behaviors ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Constraint Ranking

Recent results suggest that people hold a notion of the true self, distinct from the self. Here, we seek to further elucidate the “true me”—whether it is good or bad, material or immaterial. Critically, we ask whether the true self is unitary. To address these questions, we invited participants to reason about John—a character who simultaneously exhibits both positive and negative moral behaviors. John’s character was gauged via two tests--a brain scan and a behavioral test, whose results invariably diverged (i.e., one test indicated that John’s moral core is positive and another negative). Participants assessed John’s true self along two questions: (a) Did John commit his acts (positive and negative) freely? and (b) What is John’s essence really? Responses to the two questions diverged. When asked to evaluate John’s moral core explicitly (by reasoning about his free will), people invariably descried John’s true self as good. But when John’s moral core was assessed implicitly (by considering his essence), people sided with the outcomes of the brain test. These results demonstrate that people hold conflicting notions of the true self. We formally support this proposal by presenting a grammar of the true self, couched within Optimality Theory. We show that the constraint ranking necessary to capture explicit and implicit view of the true self are distinct. Our intuitive belief in a true unitary “me” is thus illusory.

Crosslinguistic similarity and variation in the simultaneous morphology of sign languages

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-608
Author(s):  
Diane Brentari ◽  
Laura Horton ◽  
Susan Goldin-Meadow
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Classifier Predicates ◽  
Crosslinguistic Variation ◽  
Hong Kong Sign Language ◽  
British Sign

Abstract Two differences between signed and spoken languages that have been widely discussed in the literature are: the degree to which morphology is expressed simultaneously (rather than sequentially), and the degree to which iconicity is used, particularly in predicates of motion and location, often referred to as classifier predicates. In this paper we analyze a set of properties marking agency and number in four sign languages for their crosslinguistic similarities and differences regarding simultaneity and iconicity. Data from American Sign Language (ASL), Italian Sign Language (LIS), British Sign Language (BSL), and Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) are analyzed. We find that iconic, cognitive, phonological, and morphological factors contribute to the distribution of these properties. We conduct two analyses—one of verbs and one of verb phrases. The analysis of classifier verbs shows that, as expected, all four languages exhibit many common formal and iconic properties in the expression of agency and number. The analysis of classifier verb phrases (VPs)—particularly, multiple-verb predicates—reveals (a) that it is grammatical in all four languages to express agency and number within a single verb, but also (b) that there is crosslinguistic variation in expressing agency and number across the four languages. We argue that this variation is motivated by how each language prioritizes, or ranks, several constraints. The rankings can be captured in Optimality Theory. Some constraints in this account, such as a constraint to be redundant, are found in all information systems and might be considered non-linguistic; however, the variation in constraint ranking in verb phrases reveals the grammatical and arbitrary nature of linguistic systems.

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