Abstract
Ghost segments are best analysed as weakly active elements under the assumption of Gradient Symbolic Representations (Smolensky & Goldrick, 2016; Rosen, 2016). This assumption allows to predict the attested interactions between phonological markedness constraints and the (non)appearance of ghost segments we find in the languages of the world: first, the co-existence of different types of ghost segments that differ in whether they appear to resolve a markedness problem or whether they disappear to avoid a markedness problem, and, second, the weak contribution to markedness of ghosts. The assumption that all underlying phonological elements have a certain activation that can gradiently differ and might persist into the output structure predicts these two phenomena straightforwardly that are challenging under alternative accounts to ghost segments
Highlights
Ghost segments are best analysed as weakly active elements under the assumption of Gradient Symbolic Representations (Smolensky & Goldrick, 2016; Rosen, 2016)
The assumption of Gradient Symbolic Representations straightforwardly allows to capture this distinction in the phonology: since ghosts are weak, they are weaker problems for markedness constraints
The first empirical argument in this paper was based on the distinction into different types of ghost segments: they can contrast in being appearing or disappearing and they can show different markedness thresholds
Summary
Ghost segments are best analysed as weakly active elements under the assumption of Gradient Symbolic Representations (Smolensky & Goldrick, 2016; Rosen, 2016). This assumption allows to predict the attested interactions between phonological markedness constraints and the (non)appearance of ghost segments we find in the languages of the world: first, the co-existence of different types of ghost segments that differ in whether they appear to resolve a markedness problem or whether they disappear to avoid a markedness problem, and, second, the weak contribution to markedness of ghosts. The assumption that all underlying phonological elements have a certain activation that can gradiently differ and might persist into the output structure predicts these two phenomena straightforwardly that are challenging under alternative accounts to ghost segments.
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