Cumulative faithfulness effects: Opaque or transparent?

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Published: Oct 26, 2018
Keywords:
Fula, Hawaiian, opacity, Optimality Theory, Harmonic Grammar

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Ashley W. Farris-Trimble

Abstract

Recent research has focused on the effects of cumulative markednessthat is, phonologies in which the violation of multiple lower-ranked markedness constraints can override the violation of a higher-ranked faithfulness constraint (e.g., Pater et al. 2007b). This paper explores the converse of the cumulative markedness problem: phonologies with cumulative faithfulness effects. In these languages, violations of multiple lower-ranked faithfulness constraints can gang up on a single higher-ranked constraint to eliminate outputs that are unfaithful in multiple ways, while allowing singly-unfaithful outputs to survive. Such effects are explored in the loanword phonologies of Fula and Hawaiian. Traditional optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004), even with local constraint conjunction (e.g., Smolensky 1995) is shown to have difficulties accounting for cumulative faithfulness effects; Harmonic Grammar is demonstrated to be a viable alternative. The question of whether these effects should be considered opaque or transparent is also addressed.

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Article Details

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

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