“Navigating the Overlap Between Phonology and Morphology: Perspectives from
Optimality Theory”
The modular inclination of generative linguistics often requires a phonological module distinct from a morphological module. The phonology is responsible for sound inventories and phonological processes, i.e., systematic modifications of sound structure. Morphology, on the other hand, is the formal system of marking oppositions among words. Virtually every language, however, exhibits ?rocess-based morphology?(PBM), where systematic modifications of sound structure are used to mark morphological distinctions. For example, intensive adjectives are formed in Javanese by raising and tensing the vowel of the last syllable, e.g., /alUs/ > alus ? efined, smooth? phonological tensing (U>u) marks this morphological category.
Debates
over the years have argued that PBM either involves essentially phonological
processes that are indexed for a morphological environment (a common view
in generative phonology), or that it is morphological in nature, involving
morphology that goes beyond simple affixation (see especially Anderson 1992
and Zwicky 1988). One of the chief aims of this talk is to demonstrate that
the inherent principles of Optimality Theory contribute to this debate by
providing straightforward classifications of PBM as inherently morphological
processes. An analysis of selected examples will be given employing Featural
Affixation (after Akinlabi 1996 and Zoll 1996) and Anti-faithfulness (Alderete
2001), and it will be argued that these theories provide both the descriptive
freedom necessary for analyzing PBM and a set of principles that limit PBM
to a restricted typology of process types. Finally, in a more speculative
vein, the problem of classifying and analyzing PBM will be studied from the
view of the learner. It will be shown that the induction of Anti-faithfulness
constraints in the ranking protocol prescribed by Biased Constraint Demotion
(Prince and Tesar to appear) provides both a means of identifying the correct
analysis of PBM, in addition to solving certain formal problems that may arise
in the acquisition of morpho-phonemic alternations
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Dr.