Comparative markedness and identity effects in reduplication

Abstract

In “Comparative Markedness” (henceforth CM), McCarthy (this volume) proposes that the markedness family of constraints should be divided into parallel sets of constraints distinguishing ‘old’ and ‘new’ violations. Whether a markedness violation is ‘old’ or ‘new’ is determined by comparing the candidate under evaluation with a ‘fully faithful candidate’ (FFC), defined in reference to a relation of correspondence. (In the case of input-output, or IO correspondence, the FFC is the candidate that is fully faithful to all properties of the input governed by IO faithfulness constraints, and that optimally satisfies markedness constraints that compel no faithfulness violations.) An ‘old’ markedness violation is shared by the candidate under evaluation and the FFC, and thus, is inherited from the input. A ‘new’ markedness violation is not shared with the FFC, and therefore results from a faithfulness violation at the same locus. CM proposes a significant revision of OT doctrine, as the model increases the access of markedness constraints to inputs albeit indirectly, through the FFC. In this first pass through CM, McCarthy shows that a number of knotty problems that have until now resisted straightforward solutions in optimality theory can be analysed employing the new approach.