<OT> New Posting: ROA-800

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 800-0106

Representational complexity in syllable structure and its consequences for Gen and Con

Jennifer L. Smith <jlsmith AT email DOT unc DOT edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=800


Abstract:
The papers in this collection all address some aspect of
the following question: In a phonological model developed
within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky
2004), what restrictions, if any, should be placed on Gen,
the function that generates a candidate set from a given
input form? Here, it is shown that restrictions on Gen must
not be considered in isolation; their effects on Con, the
constraint set, must be taken into account as well. In particular, 
allowing Gen a greater degree of freedom in generating
subsyllabic structure helps maintain a more restrictive,
functionally grounded constraint set.

After a background discussion of the relationship between
representational complexity and freedom of analysis, this
paper presents an explicit set of representational assumptions
about subsyllabic structure (sec. 2) and shows that representa-
tional complexity has implications for Con as well as for Gen,
in the context of a sonority-based analysis of liquid-specific
onset restrictions (sec. 3). Additional syllabification-related
predictions of the version of Gen presented here are also
considered (sec. 4).

Comments: Submitted to M. Krämer, P. Bye, and S. Blaho, eds., 'Freedom of Analysis?'.   Manuscript date:  January 2006.
Keywords: freedom of analysis, syllable structure, moraic theory, sonority, functional grounding
Areas: Phonology,Formal Analysis
Type: Book Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=800