<OT> New Posting: ROA-607

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 607-0703

Tiberian Hebrew spirantization and related phenomena in stratal OT

Andrew Koontz-Garboden <andrewkg at csli.stanford.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=607


Abstract:
This paper takes Idsardi's (1998) discussion of Tiberian
Hebrew (TH) spirantization as a point of departure for an
investigation of these phenomena within a stratal approach
(Kiparsky 2000,2001) to optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky
1993).  The paper begins by discussing the larger problem
of phonological opacity (Kiparsky 1973) in optimality theory,
since the TH facts have played a prominent role in this
discussion.  The analysis begins with an examination of
the phenomena under study (spirantization, epenthesis, laryngeal
deletion, vowel deletion and their interaction), followed
by a look at the motivation for level-ordering in TH.  Unique
to the present analysis, in addition to the stratal OT approach
in general, is the positing of a `phrasal stratum' of OT
phonology in TH, on the basis of Dresher's (1994) observation
that several TH phonological processes take the phonological
phrase as their domain of application, spirantization among
them.  The stratal optimality theoretic analysis, aside
from accounting for the phenomena under study, raises several
interesting theoretical questions for the stratal OT framework
that merit further examination.  Among these are:  the status
of what we dub the Constraint Promotion Hypothesis (an idea
due to Kiparsky p.c.), whereby promotion of constraints
between strata is promotion to undominated status; the status
of vacuous Duke-of-York derivations; and the relative ranking
of markedness constraints with respect to faithfulness constraint
s at different strata in the absence of positive evidence.
As a preliminary extension of the analysis of the spirantization
facts, the paper also includes discussion of epenthesis,
umlaut, vowel lowering interaction, which according to Idsardi
(2000) are problematic for a level-ordered approach to OT.

Keywords: stratal OT, level ordering, opacity, spirantization, Hebrew

Areas: Phonology,Morphology

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=607