Round Licensing, Harmony, and Bisyllabic Triggers inAltaic

Abstract

Many Altaic languages restrictround vowel distribution. This paper examines round harmony inClassical Manchu and Oroqen, where roundspreading occurs only when the first two syllables ofa word are round, that is, it requires abisyllabic trigger (Zhang 1996). It is argued that the binarythreshold emerges from conflict betweenwell-established phonological demands – numericreference is neither necessary nor desirable.The study isolates two distinct restrictions onrounding in bisyllabic trigger languages: initialround licensing and round spreading –requirements occurring independently in ClassicalMongolian and Ulcha. Separating theserestrictions is key: each is active inlanguages with bisyllabic triggers, but they are rankedasymmetrically with respect to a conflictingconstraint that restricts features to a tautosyllabicdomain. Ranking the tautosyllabic constraintbetween round licensing and spreading preventscross-syllable spreading except when violationsof tautosyllabicity are independently necessitatedby round licensing. As a result, spreading isinitiated only when the first two syllables are round.Implications are identified for the characterizationof faithfulness. Positional faithfulnessconstraints play a key role in realizing theprivileged status of the root-initial syllable in roundlicensing and harmony. In addition, the analysissupports the separation ofIdent(F) into IO andOI constraints, which distinguish between the lossand gain of privative feature specifications,respectively. The distinction proves essential in thecase of bisyllabic triggers.The constraint interaction that produces thetwo-syllable trigger threshold is an instance of ageneral phenomenon explored here, termedParasitic Constraint Satisfaction. This kind ofinteraction arises when there are two constraints orconstraint sets, α and β,whose satisfaction each necessitates violating a constraint,γ, and they are rankedα ≫ γ ≫ β.When satisfaction of α compels violationsof γ that also permit satisfaction ofβ, then β is described as parasitic on α.Two outcomes for Parasitic Constraint Satisfaction arediscussed. The first is an emergence of theunmarked, occurring when β is a markedness constraintwhose activity emerges in contextswhere it is parasitic on α. The second outcome,where β is a faithfulness constraint, is anemergence of the faithful.