Derivational Sequences and Harmony Scales

Derivational sequences and harmony scales are collections of relationships between phonological structures that are used to pick out a grammatical surface representation: a surface representation is the final form in a sequence in derivational phonology; it is the optimal form on a scale of relative harmony in optimality phonology. The two approaches would match still further if traversing along the steps of a derivational sequence to the end were consistent with traversing through increments in harmony up to the peak. We formulate this possible analogy between derivation and harmony in 5.1, and analyse the extent to which it holds in 5.2. In 5.3, we show that derivational steps which contradict harmony are ruled out by adding a strict economy condition on derivation length. However, this is too strong, ruling out other derivations for which there is evidence in Slavic languages, which do not contradict harmony. In an appendix, we examine how to foreclose the possibility of harmony scales with multiple optimal members, since sequences do not have multiple endpoints.