Markedness relation, identity avoidance, and clausal recursion in Mandarin Chinese

This paper uses optimality theory (OT) to account for the phenomenon of identity occurrence resulting from clausal recursion, which we argue is derived from syntactic embedding and syntactic adjunction. This paper shows that the interaction between faithfulness and economy constraints allows for the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 2021-11, Vol.57 (3), p.429-469
Main Author: Tseng, Yu-Ching
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chinese languages
Clauses
Constraints
identity avoidance
Linguistics
Mandarin
Markedness
Morphemes
Optimality theory
OT syntax
Recursion
Semantics
Syntactic structures
Syntax
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper uses optimality theory (OT) to account for the phenomenon of identity occurrence resulting from clausal recursion, which we argue is derived from syntactic embedding and syntactic adjunction. This paper shows that the interaction between faithfulness and economy constraints allows for the optional deletion of functional morphemes that occur repetitively. The syntactic process of deletion is sensitive to the concept of markedness in a few ways. First, the marked, rather than the unmarked, pattern is the trigger for deletion; second, unmarked constructions have priority over marked constructions as the target for deletion. All of these ideas are integrated into the OT model that involves self-conjoined constraints, the mechanism of harmonic alignment, and the competition between faithfulness and economy constraints.
ISSN:0137-2459
1732-0747
1897-7499
DOI:10.1515/psicl-2021-0018