Text

theses

In the dissertation, I propose a theory of phonological agreement called φ-Correspondence that is a formal extension of Correspondence Theory (McCarthy & Prince 1995). The theory is distinguished from Agreement By Correspondence (ABC, Rose & Walker 2004, Hansson 2001/2010, Bennett 2013/2015) in that it satisfies the following two assumptions.

Hypothesis I (correspondence relation): I/O-Correspondence and φ-Correspondence relations are the same kind of formal relations.

Hypothesis II (Constraints): I/O-Correspondence and φ-Correspondence constraints have the same definitions.

By analyzing three case studies in Chumash, Kalabari, and Basque, I show that φ-Correspondence solves several empirical and theoretical problems that have been recently pointed out in the literature on harmony, such as the problem of directionality (Bennett 2013/2015), Overlapping harmony (Walker 2016), and Agreement By Proxy (Hansson and McMullin 2016). Counterfeeding opacity is also correctly predicted to arise from the interaction between markedness and faithfulness constraints on heads (Falk 2014).

In the dissertation, I also formulate a generalization on the directionality of dominant-regressive consonant harmonies (Baković 2000, Hansson 2001/2010) and show that in φ-Correspondence it can be analyzed as an effect of the Preservation of the Marked (de Lacy 2002/2006).
Finally, the theory establishes a parallel between feature heads and prosodic heads by showing that they adhere to the same axioms, that they tend to be aligned to right morpho-phonological edges and that they are a target of positional faithfulness constraints.

ETD_9274

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Luca Iacoponi

doi:10.7282/t3-en12-wx57

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.