<OT> New Posting: ROA-599

[roa@equinox.rutgers.edu]

ROA 599-0403

Root-controlled Fusion in Zoque: Root-Faith and Neutralization Avoidance

Shigeto Kawahara <kawahara@linguist.umass.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=599


Abstract:
A growing body of work in Optimality Theory reveals the
privileged status of roots compared to affixes in natural
languages. This has lead to the postulation of distinct
faithfulness constraints for roots and affixes, and most
researcherss agree that the ranking FAITHROOT >> FAITHAFFIX
universally holds. In this paper, I argue that this approach
is further supported by the behavior of fusion found in
Zoque where features from roots always take precedence over
features from affixes. Further, I show that root-controlledness
of fusion interacts interestingly with a constraint against
contrast neutralization within a paradigm.

Keywords: fusion, root-controlled phenomenon, contrast neutralization avoidance

Areas: Phonology

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=599