Abstract
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.
References
Aikhenvald, A. Y. (2006b). Serial Verb Constructions in Tariana. In A. Y. Aikhenvald, & R. M. W. Dixon (eds.), Serial Verb Constructions. A Crosslinguistic Typology, pp. 178-200, Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199279159.003.0008Search in Google Scholar
Aissen, J. (1999). Markedness and subject choice in optimality theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 17(4), 673–711.10.1023/A:1006335629372Search in Google Scholar
Aissen, J. (2003). Differential object marking: iconicity vs. economy. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 21(3), 435–483.10.1023/A:1024109008573Search in Google Scholar
Alderete, J. (1996). Self-conjunction under strict adjacency. Unpublished manuscript, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.Search in Google Scholar
Alderete, J. (1997). Dissimilation as local conjunction. In K. Kusumoto (Ed.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 27 (pp. 17–32). Amherst, MA: GLSA.Search in Google Scholar
Anttila, A., & Fong, V. (2000). The partitive constraint in optimality theory. Journal of Semantics, 17(4), 281–314.10.1093/jos/17.4.281Search in Google Scholar
Baker, M. C. (1989). Object sharing and projection in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry, 20, 513-553.Search in Google Scholar
Bisang, Walter. 1995. Verb serialization and converbs - differences and similarities. In M. Haspelmath & E. König (eds.), Converbs in Cross-linguistic Perspective, pp. 137-188. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110884463-006Search in Google Scholar
Bošković, Ž., & Lasnik, H. (2003). On the distribution of null complementizers. Linguistic Inquiry, 34, 527–546.10.1162/002438903322520142Search in Google Scholar
Chao, Y.-R. (1968). A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chappell, H. (2017). Say-complementizers in Sinitic languages. In Sybesma, R., Behr, W., Gu, Y., Handel, Z., Huang, C.-T. J., & Myers, J. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Chinese language and linguistics (Vol. 3, pp. 658–664). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.Search in Google Scholar
Chen, L. R. (1997). Taiwan yu Taiwan huayu li de ziju jiegou biaozhi “jiang” yu “kan” [Taiwan and the clausal markers “speak” and “see” in Taiwanese Chinese]. In Taiyu, huayu de jiegou ji dongxiang Volume II: Tai, hua yu de jiechu yu tongyiyu de hudong (pp. 105–132). Taipei, Taiwan: Yuan-liou.Search in Google Scholar
Cheng. L. L.-S. (1986). De in Mandarin. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 31(4), 313– 326.10.1017/S0008413100011865Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.21236/AD0616323Search in Google Scholar
Dixon, R.M.W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511611896Search in Google Scholar
Fukazawa, H. (1999). Theoretical implications of OCP effects on features in optimality theory (Doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland, College Park, MD.Search in Google Scholar
Givón, T. (2009). Multiple routes to clause union: The diachrony of complex verb phrases. In: T. Givón & M. Shibatani (Eds.), Syntactic Complexity: Diachrony, Acquisition, Neuro-cognition, Evolution (pp. 81–118). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.85.04mulSearch in Google Scholar
Goldsmith, A. J. (1984). Meeussen's rule. In M. Aronoff & R. Oehrle (Eds.), Language sound structure (pp. 245–259). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane. (1997). Projections, heads, and optimality. Linguistic Inquiry, 28, 373-422.Search in Google Scholar
Hashimoto, A. Y. (1971). Mandarin syntactic structures. Unicorn (Chi-Lin), 8, 1–149.Search in Google Scholar
Haspelmath, M. (2006). Against markedness (and what to replace it with). Journal of Linguistics, 42(1), 25–70.10.1017/S0022226705003683Search in Google Scholar
Haspelmath, M. (2016). The Serial verb construction: comparative concept and crosslinguistic generalizations. Language and Linguistics, 17(3), 291-319.10.1177/2397002215626895Search in Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. J. (1982). Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar (Doctoral dissertation). Cambridge, MA: MIT.Search in Google Scholar
Huang, N. (2018). Control complements in Mandarin Chinese: Implications for restructuring and the Chinese finiteness debate. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 27, 347-376.10.1007/s10831-018-9185-1Search in Google Scholar
Huang, S. F. (2013). Chinese grammar at work. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Netherlands/USA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/scld.1Search in Google Scholar
Holton, D. (1995). Assimilation and dissimilation of Sundanese liquids. In J. Beckman, L. Dickey, & S. Urbancqyk (Eds.), University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers, 18 (pp. 167–180). Amherst, MA: GLSA.Search in Google Scholar
Itô, J. & Mester, A. (1996). Structural economy and OCP interactions in local domains. Paper presented at Western Conference on Linguistics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA.Search in Google Scholar
Itô, J. & Mester, A. (1998). Markedness and word structure: OCP effects in Japanese.Search in Google Scholar
Rutgers Optimality Archive. Retrieved from http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/roa.htmlSearch in Google Scholar
Itô, J. & Mester, A. (2003). Lexical and postlexical phonology in optimality theory: evidence from Japanese. In G. Fanselow & C. Féry (Eds.), Linguistische Berichte. Sonderheft 11: Resolving Conflicts in Grammars (pp. 183–207).Search in Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1957). The relationship between genitive and plural in the declension of Russian nouns. Scando-Slavica, 3(1), 181–186.10.1080/00806765708600268Search in Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1966). Quest for the essence of language. Diogenes, 13(51), 21–37.10.1515/9783110873269.345Search in Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1972). Verbal communication. Scientific American, 227, 72–80.10.1515/9783110855463.81Search in Google Scholar
Li, C. N. & Thompson, S. A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Li, Y. H. (1990). Order and constituency in Mandarin Chinese. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-009-1898-6Search in Google Scholar
Mohanan, T. (1994). Case OCP: A constraint on word order in Hindi. In M. Butt, T. H. King, & G. Ramchand (Eds.), Theoretical perspectives on word order in South Asian languages (pp. 185–216). Stanford, CA: CSLI.Search in Google Scholar
Myers, S. (1997). OCP effects in optimality theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 15(4), 847–892.10.1002/9780470756171.ch13Search in Google Scholar
Odden, D. (1994). Adjacency parameters in phonology. Language, 70(2): 289–330.10.2307/415830Search in Google Scholar
Padgett, J. (1992). OCP subsidiary features. Proceedings of the North East Linguistics Society, 22 (pp. 335–346). Amherst, MA: GLSA.Search in Google Scholar
Paul, W. (2014). Why particles are not particular: sentence-final particles in Chinese as heads of a split CP. Studia Linguistica, 68, 77–115.10.1111/stul.12020Search in Google Scholar
Paul, W. (2015). New perspectives on Chinese syntax. Berlin/Munich/Boston, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110338775Search in Google Scholar
Poster, W. J. (2002). The double-o constraints in Japanese. Unpublished manuscript.Search in Google Scholar
Prince, A., & Smolensky, P. (1993). Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. Unpublished manuscript, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.Search in Google Scholar
Ross, J. R. (1972). Doubl-ing. Linguistic Inquiry, 3, 61–86.Search in Google Scholar
Silverstein, M. (1976). Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In R. Dixon (Ed.), Grammatical categories in Australian languages (pp. 112–171). Atlantic City, NJ: Humanities Press.Search in Google Scholar
Simpson, A. (2014). Sentence-final particles. In C.-T. J. Huang, Y.-H. A. Lee, & A. Simpson (Eds.), The handbook of Chinese linguistics (pp. 156–179). UK: Wiley Blackwell.10.1002/9781118584552.ch7Search in Google Scholar
Tang, T.-C. (1992). Hanyu cifa jufa sanji [Studies on Chinese morphology and syntax Vol. 3] Taipei: Student Book Co.Search in Google Scholar
Trubetzkoy, N. (1931). Die phonologischen systeme. Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, 4, 96–116.Search in Google Scholar
Trubetzkoy, N. (1939). Grundzüge der phonologie. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Search in Google Scholar
Tseng, Y. C. (2008). A typology of syntactic OCP effects: A study of OCP in Hakka syntax and optimality theory (Doctoral dissertation). State University of New York, Albany, NY.Search in Google Scholar
Xu, D. (1993). A CP analysis of Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics in Netherlands, 10, 189-200.10.1075/avt.10.19xuSearch in Google Scholar
Yip, M. (1995). Repetition and its avoidance: The case of Javanese. Unpublished manuscript.Search in Google Scholar
Yip, M. (1998). Identity avoidance in phonology and morphology. In S. G. Lapointe, D. K. Brentari, & P. M. Farrell (Eds.), Morphology and its relation to phonology and syntax (pp. 216–246). Stanford, CA: CSLI.Search in Google Scholar
Zang Y. Q. & Tian, F. J. (2015). Study on markedness in linguistics. Sino-US English Teaching, 12(9), 667–671.10.17265/1539-8072/2015.09.004Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
