Serial Reduplication Is Empirically Adequate and Typologically Restrictive

Wei and Walker (2020) and Zymet (2018) claim that derivational lookahead effects are attested in the interactions between reduplication and other phonological processes in Mbe and Logoori, respectively. On the basis of this evidence, they argue that reduplication in these languages cannot be modeled by Serial Template Satisfaction (McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin, 2012), a theory of reduplication set in Harmonic Serialism. This paper refutes these claims, and provides serial analyses for both languages. It further identifies a novel prediction of Base-Reduplicant Correspondence Theory (McCarthy and Prince, 1994, 1995, 1999), a parallel theory of reduplication, that reduplicants may surface with marked structures unattested elsewhere in the language, and demonstrates that these patterns are not replicated in serial.

San’ani Arabic Stress in Harmonic Serialism

The word stress system in San’ani Arabic exhibits patterns of stress placement that associate some level of prominence with syllables with long vowels and syllables that end in the left-leg of a geminate. The fact that such syllables always succeed in attracting stress away from other non-final CVC syllables, even beyond the final trisyllabic window, clearly indicates the role that underlying moraicity plays in the stress algorithm. The proposed account, offered in this paper for the word stress system in San’ani, is couched in Harmonic Serialism, as a serial version of Optimality Theory. Key to the analyses presented is the assumption of gradual prosodification. The distinction drawn between faithful and unfaithful prosodic operations allows for applying some in a parallel fashion, but confines others to serialism. Central to the analysis, as well, is the exceptional case of final stress, which is mainly attributed to the intrinsic prominence of syllables with underlying bimoraic sequences.

Gradual Vowel Epenthesis in Urban Hijazi Arabic

In this paper, vowel epenthesis in Urban Hijazi Arabic is analysed as a process of gradual structural build-up. Harmonic Serialism, a derivational framework of Optimality Theory, provides the theoretical foundation to illustrate the arguments. Rather than epenthesising an entire vowel all at once, featural structure progressively increases in successive steps. This accumulation continues until the required vowel quality is achieved. Specifically, the constraint hierarchy predicts high epenthetic vowels to occur in closed syllables and the low epenthetic vowel in open syllables. The same constraint hierarchy, however, is also expected to predict both gradual epenthesis and gradual deletion. In that regard, a seemingly paradoxical situation is created when the very same intermediate vowel quality is achieved through accumulation or attrition of featural structure. This particular vowel quality, in exactly the same environment, will have to continue gaining internal structure towards epenthesis or continue losing internal structure towards deletion. Eventually, identifying the path that the derivation takes to reach a certain vowel will help to resolve the issue.

Modeling the Acquisition of Phonological Interactions: Biases and Generalization

In this paper we computationally implement four different theories for representing opaque and transparent phonological interactions: Harmonic Serialism, Stratal OT, Two-Level Constraints, and Indexed Constraints. We then show that these theories make unique predictions on two tasks: (1) a learning-bias task, based on previous experimental work with humans and (2) a novel generalization task that no human data exists for. Our results in (1) show that serial models predict that transparent languages should be easier to acquire, while parallel models do not. Furthermore, the results for (2) show that all four of the theories we test make unique predictions for how humans should generalize to novel phonological interaction types.

A Lookahead Effect in Mbe Reduplication: Implications for Harmonic Serialism

Various phenomena involving the interaction of reduplication and phonology have been brought to bear on evaluating parallel versus serial theories of phonology. In Base-Reduplicant (BR) Correspondence Theory ( McCarthy and Prince 1995 ), implemented in the classic parallel version of Optimality Theory (P-OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004 ), the mapping from the underlying representation to the surface output is direct, without intermediate stages. In P-OT, the candidate-generating function GEN can simultaneously introduce multiple changes to the input. In contrast, the theory of Serial Template Satisfaction (STS; McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin (MKM) 2012 ) is an approach to reduplication couched within Harmonic Serialism ( McCarthy 2000 et seq .), a version of OT with serial evaluation that includes intermediate levels of structure. In Harmonic Serialism, GEN is restricted to making no more than one change at each derivational step, a property known as gradualness. An argument put forth in favor of STS is that it does not admit a number of reduplicative patterns that MKM claim are unattested, which are otherwise predicted by BR Correspondence Theory in P-OT ( MKM 2012:225 ). Among these are patterns formerly interpreted as overapplication, backcopying, and underapplication. While such patterns previously served as arguments for BR Correspondence Theory ( McCarthy and Prince 1995 , 1999 ), MKM reexamine those cases and conclude that they do not provide solid evidence against a serial approach. Among the remaining patterns, coda-skipping reduplication and derivational lookahead appear to offer the strongest arguments in favor of STS. These are the two patterns for which the parallel and serial versions of OT make quite distinct predictions. However, recent studies have called the status of arguments involving both patterns into question. Zukoff (2017) shows that STS does not actually exclude coda-skipping reduplication, because certain mechanics that STS employs to account for attested partial onset skipping would predict coda skipping. Adler and Zymet (2017) identify a reduplication pattern in Maragoli that poses a type of lookahead problem for STS: the ordering of reduplication and hiatus-driven glide formation depends on lookahead to the surface form of the reduplicant, which favors a simple onset. In light of the ongoing discussion on these issues, this squib focuses on another kind of lookahead effect in reduplication where the amount of material copied would depend on a subsequent phonological change in the setting of a serial evaluation. Due to the stepwise gradual change in Harmonic Serialism, STS predicts that lookahead effects are not possible, while the potential for multiple, simultaneous changes in P-OT predicts that they exist. In this squib, we argue that a reduplicative affixation in Mbe instantiates a lookahead effect—specifically, one that closely resembles a hypothetical pattern that MKM identify as a problem for STS, were it to be attested. Furthermore, the variation in reduplicant size is arguably a case of “simple-syllable reduplication,” a pattern claimed not to be predicted by STS. This reduplicative pattern in Mbe is straightforwardly accounted for in P-OT. However, in STS the pattern cannot be understood as a lookahead phenomenon, which gives rise to a treatment with unwanted stipulations and complications. We consider three alternatives in STS involving allomorphy or different templatic approaches, but find shortcomings in each.

Southern Pomo syncope is metrically conditioned: Metrical opacity and stratal derivation

Southern Pomo displays a process of rhythmic vowel deletion that appears to be sensitive to a metrical structure that is incompatible with surface stress, and is thus metrically opaque. This pattern implicates a metrical reversal, which is best accounted for by re-ranking constraints at different derivational stages in Stratal OT. The first stratum defines weak positions by building structure from left to right, while the second stratum deletes vowels in those weak positions and reassigns prominence from right to left. Some prior work has asserted that stratal models of rhythmic phonotactics overgenerate, making typologically strange predictions. This literature has argued that cases like Southern Pomo should instead be analyzed in surface-oriented, parallel systems. This paper demonstrates that Southern Pomo syncope cannot be generated in parallel, nor in derivational frameworks that are more restrictive, i.e. Harmonic Serialism. This work suggests strata are necessary, with further evidence coming from phrasal and word-internal processes, and diachronic change.