<OT> New Posting: ROA-1025

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ROA 1025-0409

Opacity in Tundra Nenets

Darya Kavitskaya <darya.kavitskaya at yale.edu>
Peter Staroverov <petesta at eden.rutgers.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1025


Abstract:
The analysis of opaque relations presents a problem to classic
Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and
Prince 1993), inherently a surface-oriented theory. Many
different proposals have been made to integrate the analysis
of opacity into OT. In this paper, we address the problem
of opacity in Tundra Nenets (TN), a Uralic (Samoyedic) language
spoken in Arctic Russia and Northern Siberia.
TN has a complex system of alternations, many of which interact
opaquely, and provides a good test case for the current
theories of opacity. In this paper, we are concerned with
the categorical metrical vowel deletion that represents
a case of self-counterfeeding opacity, and its interaction
with vowel deletion in final syllables. We show that among
OT approaches to opacity, there are some that cannot handle
metrical vowel deletion in TN in principle (Targeted Constraints,
OT-CC), some that can but are undesirable on theoretical
grounds (Local Constraint Conjunction, in particular, self-conjun
ction), and the full analysis of the data still requires
combining two different theories (Stratal OT and Comparative
Markedness).

Comments: 
Keywords: phonological opacity, OT-CC, Stratal OT, Targeted Constraints, Comparative Markedness, Local Constraint Conjunction
Areas: Phonology
Type: Conference Proceedings Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1025