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Derived Environment Blocking Effects in Optimality Theory

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Abstract

The present study examines a particular kind of rule blockage – referred to below as ‘Derived Environment Blocking’ – which has not been recognized to date in the literature. Derived Environment Blocking (DEB) occurs if a phonological process is prevented from deriving a sequence of sounds [XY], but underlying (i.e. nonderived) /XY/ sequences are permitted to surface as [XY]. It will be argued below that Derived Environment Blocking effects can be captured in Optimality Theory in terms of a general ranking involving Faithfulness and Markedness constraints and that individual languages invoke a specific instantiation of this ranking. DEB will be compared to Comparative Markedness (McCarthy 2003) and it will be shown that the former approach is preferable to the later.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Germanic Studies, Ballantine Hall 644 Indiana University, 1020 Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405-7103, USA

    T. A. Hall

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articlenote: Earlier versions of this article have benefited from comments by Stuart Davis, Silke Hamann, Evan Mellander, Marzena Zygis and two anonymous reviewers. Thanks are also due to Tobias Scheer for providing me with much of the data on French and to the audience at a colloquium given at the University of Leipzig in June, 2005. All disclaimers apply.

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Hall, T.A. Derived Environment Blocking Effects in Optimality Theory. Nat Language Linguistic Theory 24, 803–856 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-006-0003-5

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