<OT> New Posting: ROA-654

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 654-0404

Inter-tier Correspondence Theory

Lian Hee Wee <lianhee at rci.rutgers.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=654


Abstract:
Inter-tier Correspondence Theory (ICT) is a theory of candidate
structure. It is a response to phenomena in which both opaque
and transparent derivational effects are simultaneously
attested. The response that ICT provides rests upon the
recognition that structural configurations are crucial in
triggering alternations in the first place.


By appealing to percolation, ICT assumes that each phonological
output candidate is in fact a structural representation
where non-terminal nodes reconstruct the information content
of the constituent nodes. However, reconstruction may be
imperfect. That outputs are structural is hardly novel,
since GEN generates structures to given strings. Instead,
it is the carriage of information in non-terminal nodes
that is noteworthy. Under ICT, terminal nodes would be identical
to the input string. Alternations no longer apply to strings
but to constituencies as elements of the input string percolate
upwards in their constituent structures. This is an important
improvement because it directly addresses the fact that
mere adjacency does not trigger alternation (many marked
collocations are tolerated if the offending sequence are
not within the same constituent). To be precise, GEN takes
an input string and maps it to candidate structures of various
percolative possibilities with the terminal nodes identical
to the input string and non-terminal nodes corresponding
to their subordinates in a multitude of ways. Thus, ICT
directly captures the insights of the containment and corresponde
nce approaches within optimality theory. There is nothing
derivational about percolation when construed as correspondence
between tiers. In fact, ICT views structural tiers as one
would a multi-layered club sandwich. In making the sandwich,
layers are ordered, but in eating, it hardly matters.


The usefulness of ICT is illustrated through a study of
tonological alternation patterns in Mandarin and Tianjin.
These languages illustrate that simultaneous exhibition
of any of 'feeding', 'bleeding', 'counterfeeding¡¨ and 'counterbl
eeding' effects, are really results of alternations applying
to constituents as they grow in size (in other words, upward
percolation).


This dissertation studies Mandarin and Tianjin in detail,
but ICT extends beyond that. To qualify ICT as a general
theory for opacity, this work also takes glimpses at English,
Tiberian Hebrew and Yokuts.

Comments: 
Keywords: Cyclicity, Directionality, Opacity, Tone Sandhi, Mandarin, Tianjin
Areas: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax
Type: PhD Dissertation

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=654