Deliberate Markedness in Japanese Hypocoristics*

A common view in the phonological literature is that phonological alternations typically involve markedness reduction; that is, deviation from an input is basically characterized as a repair of a marked structure. Under the most extreme version of phonological theory, every output constraint is simply a reflection of a markedness hierarchy, meaning that all disparities between inputs and outputs are attributed to markedness reduction (see de Lacy 2007 for relevant discussion; cf. Moreton 1999). While the jury is still out as to whether all phonological alternations should be explained in terms of markedness reduction, it is generally agreed that markedness is the major driving force behind phonological alternations. However, it is reported that in certain cases, phonological alternations seem to derive otherwise disfavored forms (Benua 1995; Tessier 2010). This paper presents novel data from Japanese hypocoristics which show some peculiar properties that cannot simply be attributed to markedness reduction. We report the results of two experiments designed to shed light on these properties. The implications of the present study are two-fold: first, the constraint *#D is psychologically real albeit seemingly no longer operative in Modern Japanese; second, Japanese speakers can evaluate markedness relative to a particular stratum of the lexicon, which lends support to the lexical stratification hypothesis put forward by Itô and Mester (1995a, 1995b, 1999).