NEW! Wolf, Matthew (2007). Mutation and learnability in Optimality Theory. Paper presented at NELS 38, University of Ottawa. Slightly updated handout
In this talk I argue that learnability considerations provide a reason to prefer an item-based approach to morphology over a declarative one. The core of the argument rests on languages like Javanese where some marked structure is allowed only when it is created through a morphological mutation process. To learn restrictive grammars of such languages, learners must be biased towards ranking mutation-triggering constraints over faithfulness constraints. I show that, under an item-based, autosegmental theory of mutation, this bias reduces to an instance of an independently required Specific-F >> General-F bias (Smith 2000 et seq.). I also discuss arguments by Adam & Bat-El (to appear), based on data from child Hebrew, that learners have the opposite bias, with morpheme-realization constraints starting below faithfulness. I show that, in an item-based theory of affixation, the child Hebrew situation can be understood as an intermediate stage resulting from root-faithfulness being promoted before general faithfulness. Thus, far from being inconsistent, in an item-based theory the Javanese and Hebrew facts reduce to two instances of the same thing.
NEW! Wolf, Matthew (2007). Morphological derived environment effects in OT-CC. Paper presented at UMMM 2, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Corrected handout
This talk presents a portion of my dissertation work on serial phonology-morphology interactions, cast in a revised version of OT with Candidate Chains (McCarthy 2007). Here, I show how OT-CC can be used to model derived environment effects ('nonderived environment blocking'). In particular, I demonstrate that in OT-CC it is possible to model DEEs using the same theoretical machinery independently needed to analyze counterfeeding and counterbleeding opacity. This unification is unavailable in either rule-based phonology or standard OT. Additionally, an appendix briefly sketches how OT-CC could be applied to cyclic effects.
Wolf, Matthew (to appear). Lexical insertion occurs in the phonological component. In Bernard Tranel (ed.), Understanding Allomorphy: Perspectives from Optimality Theory. London: Equinox.
A prepublication draft is available here.
I propose a late-insertion, OT-based model of morphology in which insertion of vocabulary items occurs in the same module of the grammar as phonological operations. I argue that this makes possible an otherwise-elusive satisfactory account of systems of phonologically-conditioned allomorphy which involve an arbitrary preference among the allomorphs, as well as leading to several other desirable empircal and conceptual consequences. These include the possibility of analyzing phonologically-motivated deponency, permitting an account of listed allomorphy that doesn't require morphemes to have multiple URs, and allowing the possibility of morphemes to be inserted for phonological reasons.
Wolf, Matthew, and John J. McCarthy (to appear). Less than zero: Correspondence and the null output. In Curt Rice (ed.), Modeling Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. London: Equinox.
An earlier version of this paper is available as ROA-722.
In OT, at least one candidate will always be chosen as optimal and emerge as the output, yet phenomena like paradigm gaps seem to require that the phonology can sometimes have no output. Prince & Smolensky (2004 [1993]) propose that this problem be solved by assuming that 'no output' is itself a member of every candidate set. Crucially, this candidate, which we refer to as the null output, must violate no markedness or faithfulness constraints. In this paper, we propose a revision of Correspondence theory (McCarthy & Prince 1995) from which the non-violation of faithfulness constraints by the null output follows without stipulation; we also show why it violates no markedness constraints.
Wolf, Matthew (2007). What constraint connectives should be permitted in OT? In Michael Becker (ed.), University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 36: Papers in Theoretical and Computational Phonology. Amherst: GLSA, pp. 151-179. [ROA-926]
Local Conjunction (LC: Smolensky 1993, 1995, 1997) been the subject of a great deal of theoretical discussion, but much less attention has been paid to the possibility that OT might include connectives other than LC for creating new constraints from pre-existing ones. Is there any reason to suspect that LC could be the only connective available to natural-language OT grammars? I argue that there is: of the fifteen possible two-place connectives besides LC, all are either analytically inert or can be ruled out by typologically-motivated criteria.
Wolf, Matthew (2007). For an autosegmental theory of mutation. In Leah Bateman, Michael O'Keefe, Ehren Reilly, and Adam Werle (eds.), University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 32: Papers in Optimality Theory III. Amherst: GLSA, pp. 315-404. [ROA-754]
A much shorter version, titled "An autosegmental theory of quirky mutations", is available online in the WCCFL 24 Proceedings.
Argues that morphological feature-changing (mutation/umlaut/ablaut, tonal morphemes, etc.) results from the docking of floating autosegments, and not from constraints that compel alternations directly, like REALIZE-MORPHEME (Kurisu 2001) or anti-faithfulness (Alderete 1999).
Wolf, Matthew, and Shigeto Kawahara (2007). A root-initial-accenting suffix in Japanese. Talk presented at 81st LSA Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA. Handout
This talk describes the accentual effects associated with the newly-emergent Japanese suffix -zu. This suffix inserts an accent onto the root-initial syllable, thereby differing from other cross-linguistically-attested pre- and post-accenting affixes, which always accent the adjacent syllable of the root. In addition to being typologically novel, we argue, the -zu data also show the need for morpheme-specific ALIGNMENT constraints, and counter-exemplify the prediction of Kurisu (2001) that morphemes are limited to at most two phonological exponents.
Wolf, Matthew (2007). Vice versa as contrastive focus. Talk presented at 81st LSA Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA.
In this talk, I show that the attested range of readings for vice versa go beyond what can be acconted for by an intuitive operation of 'swapping'. I argue for an analysis in which vice versa denotes a free variable ranging over the focus contrast set of the clause that it is conjoined with, and present (in progress) experimental evidence in favor of the focus-based approach.