Optimality theory and morphology

Abstract

This article introduces Realization Optimality Theory, a novel and promising morphological framework which adopts the formalism of Optimality Theory and encodes the morphological realization rules of, for example, Aronoff (1994) as ranked violable constraints. These language-particular realization constraints are interspersed with universal markedness constraints of morphology. This treatment of morphological realization in terms of constraints successfully accounts for various widely discussed morphological phenomena such as blocking and extended morphological exponence, the emergence of an unmarked morph under morpho-phonological conditions, syncretism and partial identity of forms. © 2011 The Author. Language and Linguistics Compass © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.