{"id":17005,"date":"2025-03-31T06:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T10:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whamit.mit.edu\/?p=17005"},"modified":"2025-03-31T10:36:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T14:36:59","slug":"phonology-circle-3-31-christopher-legerme-mit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/2025\/03\/31\/phonology-circle-3-31-christopher-legerme-mit-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Phonology Circle 3\/31 - Christopher Legerme (MIT)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Speaker: <\/strong> Christopher Legerme (MIT)<br class=\"\" \/><br clear='none'\/>\n<strong>Title: <\/strong>Non-Optimization and Locality in Phonology<br class=\"\" \/><br clear='none'\/>\n<strong>Time: <\/strong>Monday, March 31st, 5pm - 6:30pm<br class=\"\" \/><br clear='none'\/>\n<strong>Location: <\/strong>32-D831<br class=\"\" \/><br clear='none'\/>\n<br class=\"\" \/><br clear='none'\/>\n<strong>Abstract: <\/strong>Drawing on recent proposals from Storme &amp; Otilien (2022) and Lahrouchi &amp; Ulfsbjorninn (2024), I discuss various linguistic patterns of Haitian Creole (HC) to illustrate how different grammatical architectures account for \u0093null alternations\u0094 and apparent \u0093non-optimizing\u0094 behavior in the language. For instance, in HC the alternation between the two forms of the definite determiner,\u00a0<i data-ogsc=\"\">la<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<i data-ogsc=\"\">a<\/i>, has traditionally been analyzed as a case of phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy:\u00a0<i data-ogsc=\"\">la<\/i>\u00a0surfaces after consonant-final stems, while\u00a0<i data-ogsc=\"\">a<\/i>\u00a0appears after vowel-final stems. However, it is often pointed out that this distribution fails to align with phonotactic optimization, as it results in marked VV and CC sequences that contrast with the language\u0092s strong preference for CV syllables. The\u00a0<i data-ogsc=\"\">la ~ a<\/i>\u00a0alternation resists resolution when treated in isolation; instead, it forces us into a broader look at the nature of grammatical representation and the theoretical constructs invoked to explain the interaction of phonetic silence and phonological locality. Therefore, we will turn to the broader landscape of null alternations, patterns in HC where phonological material is variably silenced depending on structural context. Along the way, we consider two competing approaches: a parallel OT architecture that invokes morphological optimization (Storme &amp; Otilien 2022), and a representational framework rooted in skeletal licensing and floating segments (Lahrouchi &amp; Ulfsbjorninn 2024). The\u00a0<i data-ogsc=\"\">la ~ a<\/i>\u00a0alternation, when situated among the broader set of null alternations in the language, offers a critical vantage point for evaluating competing theoretical commitments. While the theories to be discussed each capture important properties of the puzzles for which they were developed to explain, I argue that a phonological rather than morphological or \u0093morphonological\u0094 account offers a better unified explanation for locality disruption and the structural conditions on segment realization in HC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaker: Christopher Legerme (MIT) Title: Non-Optimization and Locality in Phonology Time: Monday, March 31st, 5pm - 6:30pm Location: 32-D831 Abstract: Drawing on recent proposals from Storme &amp; Otilien (2022) and Lahrouchi &amp; Ulfsbjorninn (2024), I discuss various linguistic patterns of Haitian Creole (HC) to illustrate how different grammatical architectures account for \u0093null alternations\u0094 and apparent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17018,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005\/revisions\/17018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}