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ROA:1236
Title:Two Issues on Constraint Conjunction
Authors:Hideki Zamma, Seiichiro Kikuchi
Comment:appeared in Kobe City University Journal 65:5, 43-72, 2015
Length:30pp
Abstract:This paper discusses two issues on the conjunction of constraints in Optimality Theory: (i) how the locality function can formally be exercised in Local Conjunction; and (ii) if Self Conjunction should really be treated as the same mechanism as Local Conjunction. It is worth discussing these two issues because, although these two theoretical devices are quite useful and widely employed in many theoretical analyses, formal discussion on the devices themselves has seldom been elicited in the literature.
As for the first issue, three theoretical approaches have been proposed: that of (i) Smolensky (1995); (ii) Ito and Mester (2003) and Smolensky (2006); and (iii) Łubowicz (2005). Following the introduction of constraint conjunction in Section 2, we discuss in Section 3 which of these three approaches can best deal with the problem Local Conjunction tries to solve, observing the issue from a set-theoretic point of view. In the same section we also address two further issues that can arise from the discussion.
The formal status of Self Conjunction is even less well-known in the OT literature. It becomes evident in Section 4 that the function which Self "Conjunction" is supposed to exercise cannot actually be fulfilled solely from the same mechanism as Local Conjunction, and that the function needs additional or different mechanisms. We discuss several possible ways by which this additional mechanism can be best carried out.
Type:Paper/tech report
Area/Keywords:Phonology, Formal Analysis
Article:Version 1