<OT> New Posting: ROA-550

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

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ROA 550-1002

Toward a compositional treatment of positional constraints:  The case of
positional augmentation

Jennifer L. Smith <jlsmith@unc.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=550


Abstract:
Toward a Compositional Treatment of Positional Constraints: 
The Case of Positional Augmentation

     Jennifer L. Smith          UNC Chapel Hill
     jlsmith@unc.edu            August 28, 2002

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Positional constraints -- versions of constraints that are 
relativized to apply only to certain phonological positions,
such as stressed syllables or released consonants -- are 
frequently employed in phonological analysis.  This paper 
argues that positional constraints, like any other family 
of related constraints, should be formally modeled as the 
output of a compositional constraint schema (such as the 
Generalized Alignment schema in McCarthy & Prince 1993).  
Specifically, the formulation of any given positional 
constraint should be automatically and compositionally 
determined by the formulation of the constraint's non-
positional counterpart and the nature of the chosen position.  
To this end, a particular set of positional constraints, the 
positional augmentation constraints (markedness constraints 
relativized to phonologically prominent positions), are 
examined.  A compositional constraint schema is developed 
that is flexible enough to extend to the many different 
kinds of positions and constraints involved in positional 
augmentation, while still determining precisely how the 
formulation of each general constraint is to be modified in 
its positional counterpart.  Certain implications of the 
approach for another set of positional constraints, the 
positional faithfulness constraints, are also considered. 

Keywords: positional augmentation, positional markedness, constraint
schema, constraint formulation, compositionality

Areas: Phonology, Formal Analysis

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=550