Trigger Competition and Locality Asymmetries in Harmony
This talk presents an analysis of locality asymmetries in vowel harmony.
In languages with multiple segments which fail to undergo harmony,
these segments may differ with respect to their ability to be treated as
transparent. In Hungarian, for example, [i] is consistently
transparent, but [e] exhibits variable behaviour and can be either
transparent or opaque. What is responsible for these segments' diverging
behaviour? I argue that locality asymmetries are best understood as an
effect that emerges from the interaction between two general preferences
in harmony --- the status of certain segments as privileged triggers,
and the marked status of non-local interactions. I present an analysis
in Serial Harmonic Grammar; harmony is driven by a positively-defined
scalar constraint, with decreased rewards for non-local harmony and
increased rewards for harmony originating from a preferred trigger.
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