Double opacity in colloquial Bengali verbs, through the lens of OT-CC

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Published: Oct 25, 2018
Keywords:
Bengali, opacity, Optimality Theory, candidate chains

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Traci C. Nagle

Abstract

The verb paradigm in Bengali exhibits double opacity. In a chain shift involving stem vowels, mid-lax and mid-tense vowels alternate with mid-tense and high-tense vowels, respectively, in syllables immediately preceding a [+high] affix segment. In the perfective aspect, preceding a [+high] glide and also in the surface absence of that glide, the low vowel alternates with a mid-tense variant. These interacting opacity effects are explained using optimality theory with candidate chains (McCarthy 2006, 2007), and a tentative proposal is offered in the conclusion to address the unexpected raising of the [+low] vowel to [+high] in the perfective forms of bisyllabic stems.

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Article Details

Issue
Vol. 8 No. 2 (2008): Phonological Opacity Effects in Optimality Theory
Section
Articles

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