<OT> New Posting: ROA-753

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 753-0605

Optimal gaps in optimal paradigms

Curt Rice <curt.rice at hum.uit.no>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=753


Abstract:
This article develops a treatment of phonologically motivated
gaps in paradigms within Optimal Paradigms theory (McCarthy
2005). The gaps are instances of absolute ungrammaticality,
i.e. situations in which there is no output for a given
input. In the approach developed here, gaps arise when phonologic
al markedness constraints outrank constraints requiring
the expression of a particular morphological category. In
this way, incomplete paradigms can be selected as optimal,
since the incomplete paradigm will incur fewer markedness
violations. The optimal gaps approach is illustrated with
Norwegian imperatives and Hungarian CCik verbs. The
analysis is compared with earlier treatments of absolute
ungrammaticality, such as the null parse of Prince and Smolensky
(1993).

Comments: to appear in Catalan Journal of Linguistics, special issue on Morphology in phonology, ed. M.-R. Lloret and J. Jimenez
Keywords: Phonology, Optimality Theory, Optimal Paradigms, Ineffability, Gaps, Norwegian
Areas: Phonology,Morphology
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=753