PERSISTENCE OF THE LATIN ACCENT IN THE NOMINAL ...

unable to capture the accentual pattern of forms both with and without suffixes. What is needed
is something resembling more closely the concept of extrametricality. Idsardi and Halle
(Buckley 2000, 274) propose a modification of the Avoid parameter and suggest that the notation
)x can be used to treat anything following the ) as extrametrical.
Table 1-2. Edge Marking Parameter in Latin
Line 0 Syllable Boundary x x x x
Projection: L rĕprĭmitur
Edge: RLR x x x)x
rĕprĭmitur
Iterative Constituent x (x x)x
Construction: L rĕprĭmitur
Head: L
x
x (x x)x
rĕprĭmitur
Line 1 Edge: RRR
x)
x (x x)x
rĕprĭmitur
Head: R
x
x)
x (x x)x
rĕprĭmitur
x x(x x
rĕprĭmuntur
x x(x) x
rĕprĭmuntur
(x x(x) x
rĕprĭmuntur
x x
(x x(x) x
rĕprĭmuntur
x x)
(x x(x) x
rĕprĭmuntur
x
x x)
(x x(x) x
rĕprĭmuntur
Avoid x(x#
applied
Second application
of Edge Marking
Parameter
Second assignment
of head
Line 1 in Table 1-2 illustrates that )x produces the desired effect for Latin, rendering the
final syllable -tur extrametrical in both cases. However, conventional use of extrametricality has
been likened to simply using a diacritic to achieve what formal rules and parameters are unable
to do. The Avoid parameter does not offer significant improvements. On the other hand, OT
presents some workable alternatives to extrametricality and other issues raised by metrical theory
through the mechanism of gradient constraints.
Optimality Theory
Prince and Smolensky (2004, 3) distinguish Optimality Theory (OT) from its predecessors
as they formalize its operative principles, constraints “that assess output configurations per se
and those responsible for maintaining the faithful preservation of underlying structures in the
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