Abstract
This study illustrates that role of Lexical Selection (Mascaró 2007) in Optimality Theory in accounting for the Welsh definite article’s allomorphy. This is in response to the claims made by Hannahs & Tallerman (2006) that OT is unable to account for the behavior and distribution of the definite article. This study addresses three of the points that Hannahs & Tallerman raised which I am calling the grammar problem, the homophony problem, and the allomorph interaction. I show that Lexical Selection is uniquely adapted to account for each of the points concerning the definite article allomorphy. Additionally, this study proposes that Lexical Selection needs to be amended with multiple Priority constraints that are morpheme specific. It also appears that there appears to exist a unique relationship between the constraint rankings of these multiple Priority constraints in what is called the prioritization of the hierarchy.
Highlights
The purpose of this study is to illustrate the strength of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004) in handling cases of allomorphic variation
This study addresses this as well as addresses the claims made by Hannahs & Tallerman (2006) as to the inability of OT to handle cases of allomorphy in Welsh
The theory accomplishes this by restricting the role that morphology is allowed to interact with the rest of the grammar to a bare minimum allowing allomorph sets for each morpheme as well as the introduction of a constraint PRIORITY to allow for the prioritization of one allomorph over the others within a set
Summary
The purpose of this study is to illustrate the strength of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004) in handling cases of allomorphic variation. An example of how this prioritization in allomorph sets functions comes from Mascaró's (2007) discussion on the data from Baix Empordà Catalan In this variety of Catalan, the infinitival morpheme for verbs is [-ɾ], which assimilates to the following pronominal clitic’s initial consonant but remains as [-ɾ] in the presence of pronominal clitics that are vowel initial or in isolation, (11). These points are the use of allomorph sets, the prioritization of the allomorphs within a set, and the introduction of the constraint PRIORITY The interaction of these points allows the phonology to select the forms needed for a given output correctly. The other instances of the ’r allomorph with consonant-initial words are ruled out by the phonotactics of the language which prohibits such structures (Hannahs 2013a) Due to this inability to produce the correct output with simple allomorph listing, we need to use partially ordered sets. We see that this produces the correct output in (22) with y/yr surfacing in every instance that is not met by the environment for ’r (21) a. yr output / {(y, yr) > ‘r} afon / a. y.afon ® b. y.ra.fon c. ‘ra.fon b. ‘r output / {(y, yr) > ‘r} afon / a. o.y.afon b. o.y.ra.fon ® c. o.’ra.fon
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