Constructionist OT. The case of German verb inflection

Abstract

I explore the properties of a variant of OT morpho-syntax that is based on the standard OT mechanism of markedness/faithfulness interaction. For this variant to play out successfully, the idea of universally specifi ed input structures is given up. Instead, language particular input structures are used, as it is generally assumed that there can only be language particular lexicons, not universal ones. For the description of these input structures, a constructionist representation is proposed. The core idea of this approach is that a construction consists in a set of components, both on the form and the meaning side. These components, in fact, are constraints on the form of linguistic expressions that are instances of the respective constructions. Morphological faithfulness, then, is the fulfi lment of these component constraints. As it turns out in my exemplary analysis of infl ectional patterns in the present tense singular forms of German verbs, the assumption that faithfulness to components is violable leads to a simpler grammatical analysis that avoids the assumption of infl ectional subclasses with differing, but regular and predictable patterns. The basic mechanism is an OT-style interaction of phonological and morphological faithfulness. 1 I want to thank the editors of this Festschrift and especially the reviewer of this paper for very helpful remarks and suggestions which helped a lot to shape my argumentation and exposition. Most of all, my thanks go to Sten Vikner, for playing a very important role in a critical stage of my scientifi c career, and for the great pleasure it was and is to work with him.