Definite Markers, Phi Features and Agreement - Georgetown ...

and grants it its own node (Noyer 1997 among many others), and Fusion, which combines twofeature bundles into one node (Halle 1997 among many others).Next, the Vocabulary Items are inserted (the terminal nodes are provided withphonological content), and the structure is linearized. Various post-linearization operations (e.g.Local Dislocation: a switch in linear order between two nodes; Embick and Noyer 2001, Embick2003) also take place, and these operations are conditioned by precedence relations. Finally,prosodic domains are built, and the PF derivation finishes with a complete phonological andlinear representation (although see Pak 2008 on how the prosodic part of the model may presentdifficulties).Vocabulary Insertion is the process whereby it is decided which Vocabulary Item shouldbe inserted for a particular feature bundle. It will play a large role in the thesis, so it isworthwhile to spend some further time introducing it. Vocabulary Insertion is a very localprocess in that it applies to one feature bundle at a time, and only one Vocabulary Item can beinserted for any given feature bundle. A Vocabulary Item itself is a relation between aphonological string and information about where the string can be inserted. The informationabout where the string is inserted is made up both of features and contextual restrictions. SomeVocabulary Items for the past tense in English are in (13).(13) a. T, [PAST] ↔ -t /{ √LEAVE, √BEND, . . . }b. T, [PAST] ↔ -ed (example from Embick and Marantz 2008)The Vocabulary Items in (13) are in competition -- both want to realize the feature bundle T,[PAST]. Two main principles determine which Vocabulary Item wins a given competition: thePānịnian Principle (aka the Elsewhere Condition) and the Subset Principle (Halle 1997). The16