A restrictive, parsimonious theory of footing in directional Harmonic Serialism

Harmonic Serialism and Finite-State Optimality Theory

This paper presents a new finite-state model of Optimality Theory (OT). In this model, two assumptions are imposed on the OT framework. Firstly, I adopt the Harmonic Serialism version of OT, in which output forms are derived from input forms via a series of incremental changes. Secondly, constraints are assumed to be strictly local in the sense that each markedness constraint specifies a set of...

Harmonic Grammar with Harmonic Serialism∗

Loss of restrictiveness through arithmetic: Concern is well-founded here. As we have shown, however, recourse to the full-blown power of numerical optimization is not required. . . In Optimality Theory, constraints are ranked, not weighted: harmonic evaluation involves the abstract algebra of order relations rather than numerical adjudication between quantities. ∗This research would not have be...

Directional Footing, Degeneracy, and Alignment

This paper argues from an Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolensky 1991, 1993; McCarthy & Prince 1993a,b, 1994) perspective that no one-to-one correspondence exists between directional footing effects and individual constraints. Rather, the requirements of a single prosodic alignment constraint may result either in left-to-right or right-to-left footing, depending on its position in a constrai...

An Introduction to Harmonic Serialism

Lapsed derivations: Ternary stress in Harmonic Serialism∗

Ternary stress presents a unique challenge to constraint-based metrical stress theories. The main question is how to model ternarity without ternary-specific representations, such as ternary feet. Along this line of reasoning, Elenbaas and Kager (1999) interpret ternarity as an underparsing effect in which long lapses are avoided while the number of feet is kept to a minimum. The standard const...