<OT> New Posting: ROA-887

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 887-1106

The Phonological Dimension of Grammatical Markedness

Cristian Iscrulescu <cristian.iscrulescu at gmail.com>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=887


Abstract:
This dissertation explores the correlation between grammatical
markedness  and the phonological properties of outputs inflected
for morpho-syntactic categories on a grammatical markedness
hierarchy. The main claim made in the thesis is that, under
otherwise similar phonological conditions, outputs carrying
specifications for a marked member (g) of a given grammatical
category (G) can license a given type of marked phonological
structure (M) to an extent that is equal or greater than
outputs inflected for the unmarked category.

I label this generalization 'Marked in the Marked' (MIM).
Within the theoretical framework assumed for the dissertation
(Optimality Theory, Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004), I propose
that the universal repository of constraints (CON) be enriched
so as to include a family of formal licensing constraints
LICENSE(M,g) that license marked phonological structure
(M) in output words that carry the morpho-syntactic specification
s of the marked member (g) of G. I propose that the licensing
constraint is functionally grounded in the sense that the
marked value g is determined by recourse to language use
factors such as frequency of occurrence in discourse. Only
licensing constraints for marked values g are allowed in CON.

The content of the notions 'grammatical markedness' and
'phonological markedness' is reviewed and criteria for the
two kinds of markedness are discussed. Manifestations of
phonological markedness and their grammatical category underpinni
ngs are discussed at the following levels: prosodic (Old
Saxon), segmental (Romanian) and phonotactic (Mayak). For
all these cases, the Marked in the Marked constraint schema
(in interaction with other relevant constraints) and the
factorial typology associated with it are shown to make
the correct empirical predictions.

A functional grounding account of the MIM effects discussed
in the dissertation is laid out. MIM phenomena are assumed
to arise from factors of economy in language production
in the sense that confining marked phonological structure
to less frequent, grammatically marked forms contributes
to minimization of speaker's effort. Also, the presence
of marked phonological material in outputs inflected for
the marked grammatical category may have certain advantages
in language perception, retrieval and acquisition.

Comments: 
Keywords: phonological markedness, grammatical markedness, functional grounding, licensing, Romanian
Areas: Phonology, Morphology
Type: PhD Dissertation

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=887