Unifying Phonotactics and Derived Environment Blocking through Prosodic Constraint Indexation

Abstract

This paper presents a theory of prosodic constraint indexation that derives the blocking of markedness-reducing processes at prosodic and morphological junctures. The principle claim is that markedness constraints are indexed to prosodic categories, and are violated only when a marked structure is fully contained within the span of the indexed constituent. The interaction of prosodically-indexed constraints with faithfulness constraints accounts for both static phonotactic restrictions and derived environment blocking effects. Furthermore, they account for domain restrictions that can not be derived by CrispEdge constraints, which reference only prosodic edges. Where Strict Layering is violated, prosodic constraint indexation correctly predicts that more marked segment sequences can be admitted in extraprosodic affixes than in root morphemes.