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Title:Irreducible parallelism in phonology
Authors: Jeffrey Adler, Jesse Zymet
Abstract:McCarthy (2013) asks whether there truly are systems of phonological processes that reveal irreducible parallelism in grammar: systems that can be captured if multiple changes can apply to the input in the same derivational step, as in Optimality Theory (OT), but not if they are required to apply in separate steps, as in Harmonic Serialism (HS). This paper makes two arguments: that a diverse range of phenomena exemplify irreducible parallelism; and that they have the same general structure. Our evidence comes primarily from the distribution of stress, lengthening, and epenthesis in Mohawk, and a reduplication-repair interaction in Maragoli. Our cases can be treated in OT, but challenge HS due to its gradualness requirement. These systems take on the following structure: to best satisfy constraints, the grammar applies one change followed by another, unless the result is ill-formed; in such a case, the grammar applies a different series of changes.

(Soon to be superseded by a longer manuscript, which covers a broader range of cases and explores in greater depth their general structure.)
Type:Paper/tech report
Area/Keywords:phonology, parallelism, Optimality Theory, Harmonic Serialism, Mohawk, Maragoli
Article:Version 1