Bennett and DelBusso to appear: Typological effects of ABC constraint definitions

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1700_bennett_1.pdf

ROA: 1326
Title: Typological effects of ABC constraint definitions
Authors: Will Bennett, Natalie DelBusso
Comment: Preprint to appear in Phonology
Length: 34 pp
Abstract: The plethora of recent work under the theoretical banner of ‘Agreement By Correspondence’ (ABC) has produced a variety of different–and sometimes contradictory–formulations of the constraints central to this framework. In OT, the effects of such definitional choices come out in the factorial typologies they predict. Yet knowing what languages a theoretical system derives is insufficient without knowing why it does so. This requires analysis of the internal ranking structures of the typology itself. This paper compares the typologies produced under different proposed modifications to the main ABC constraints. We analyze the typologies in Property Theory, a theory of typological organization in OT. Our analyses show that all such ABC variations have a common core structure, and that differences in their factorial typologies reduce to differences in how this common structure expands and iterates for different features. This allows for precise delineation of how and why different definitions of ABC constraints affect typologies.
Type: Paper/tech report
Area/Keywords: typology, Agreement By Correspondence, Property Theory, Optimality Theory, harmony, dissimilation