Constraint-based Morpho-phonology

In this paper, we develop a new generative paradigm with which to capture phonological generalizations. Our framework differs from standard generative frameworks inasmuch as we eschew all derivational analyses. Thus, we dispense with procedural transformations of underlying and intermediate representations into surface forms by means of the cyclic application of relatively unconstrained context-sensitive rewriting rules, lnstead, we adopt a strictly monostratal approach, wherein a single level of articulatory representation is subject to linguistic constraints expressed declaratively using well-understood logical tools. In order for our enterprise to succeed, we will require a rich representational system. To this end, we follow the lead of autosegmental and metrical phonology, taking our representations to be organized around natural groupings of articulators. A further similarity to autosegmental analyses and some traditional generative analyses is that we allow underspecification in our lexical rcpresentationsl But in contrast to these other theories, we adopt a single, concrete, surface-based representational system, rather than abstract underlying and intermediate representations of uncertain status. In particular, our approach is strictly monotonic, disallowing stages of analysis in which ill-formed representations are constructed and repaired. Instead, the linguistic constraints we impose, both universal and parochial, combined with possibly underspecified lexical representat.ions, conspire to fully determine surface representations. The result is a fully declarative system, albeit one which can be provided with a procedural interpretation in which lexicai (syntactic and semantic) representatk)ns are incrementally refined into surface representations, or vice-versa, by the application of constraints, citlmr sc~q,cntially or in parallel. Wc haw" chosen to employ feature structures for our phonological rel)rcsentations, a natural candidate for cu,straiut-based linguistic theories. Feature structures provide two mechanisms for constructing linguistic representations. The first is a multiple inheritance hierarchy of types, which allows the multi-dimensional classification of structures. The second mechanism is that of fi~atures, whose values are themselves modeled by feat . r e structures.