Derived Environment Blocking Effects in Optimality Theory

The present study examines a particular kind of rule blockage – referred to below as ‘Derived Environment Blocking’ – which has not been recognized to date in the literature. Derived Environment Blocking (DEB) occurs if a phonological process is prevented from deriving a sequence of sounds [XY], but underlying (i.e. nonderived) /XY/ sequences are permitted to surface as [XY]. It will be argued below that Derived Environment Blocking effects can be captured in Optimality Theory in terms of a general ranking involving Faithfulness and Markedness constraints and that individual languages invoke a specific instantiation of this ranking. DEB will be compared to Comparative Markedness (McCarthy 2003) and it will be shown that the former approach is preferable to the later.

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