<OT> New Posting: ROA-554

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

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ROA 554-1002

Contrast Preservation in Phonological Mappings [Dissertation]

Anna Lubowicz <lubow002@umn.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=554


Abstract:
The present study investigates how information about 
contrasts is employed in the grammar. It is proposed 
that contrast preservation exists as an independent 
principle, which, within the framework of Optimality 
Theory, is formalized as a family of rankable and 
violable constraints on preserving contrasts. Those 
constraints interact with one another and with 
conflicting markedness constraints resulting in 
preservation or neutralization of underlying 
distinctions in surface forms (cf. Trubetzkoy 
1971, Martinet 1967, Kiparsky 1973). 

  This work contributes to the growing body of research 
on the status of contrast in phonology (cf. Flemming 
1995, Padgett 1997, 2000). In standard OT (P&S 1993) 
and derivational approaches to phonology (Chomsky & 
Halle 1968), contrast preservation follows from other 
components of the grammar and is not stated as an 
independent principle. By re-examining the role of 
contrast, this study makes a significant contribution 
to our understanding of a phonological system and the 
nature of a phonological mapping (cf. Kaye 1974, 1975, 
Kisseberth 1976).


  The proposal to treat contrast preservation as an 
independent principle has far-reaching consequences: 
(i) it provides new insights into possible interactions 
between phonological mappings, and in so doing gives a 
more accurate typology of chain shifts (see chapter 4);
(ii) it provides a uniform analysis of opaque and 
transparent phonological processes (chapters 2, 3 and 
5); (iii) it eliminates the need for constraint 
conjunctions and other mechanisms needed to account for 
opacity (chapter 4); and finally, (iv) it sheds new 
light on the role of faithfulness and markedness in the 
grammar (chapter 1).


  This dissertation is organized as follows. Chapter 1 
presents the proposal. Chapter 2 examines typological 
implications of the proposal. Chapter 3 provides 
empirical support based on the example of Finnish chain 
shifts. Chapter 4 examines the predictions of the 
proposal and compares them to previous approaches. 
Finally, chapter 5 applies the proposal to the study of 
stress-epenthesis interaction in dialects of Arabic.

Keywords: contrast, chain shifts, opacity

Areas: Phonology

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=554