Dissertation - Michael Becker

(Ní Chiosáin 1991; Wolf 2008a).In Irish, for example, a word-initial [m] usuallymutates into a nasal glide, [ ˜w], but the mutation is blocked in some words. Since [ ˜w]is generally banned in Irish, we can conclude that * ˜w outranks faithfulness constraintssuch as IDENT(cont). In derived environments, [ ˜w] is usually allowed, but some wordsexceptionally block mutation, such as meid ‘amount’, which does not turn into * ˜weid.Assuming that mutation is due to faithfulness to a floating feature, as proposed in Wolf(2007), MAX(float) must outrank * ˜w for most words of Irish, 20 while the exceptions require* ˜w to rank above MAX(float), leading to an inconsistent grammar that must be resolved bycloning.4.5.2 Competing repairsIn addition to the trends that follow the schemata in (200) and (201), a third kindof lexical trend can be caused by exceptional ranking of two faithfulness constraints, asschematized in (202).(202) Affixation respects markedness by deploying two different repairsIn roots: M ≫ F1, F2In affixed forms: some roots require M ≫ F1 ≫ F2, some M ≫ F2 ≫ F1A case that can be described in terms of (202) is the zero-marked past tense of Englishverbs, as discussed in §1.1.2. In English, final clusters of alveolar stops (t, d) are notallowed, so the constraint that bans these clusters, *DD, is undominated in the language.There is no evidence that can bear on how these clusters are repaired inside roots: Ahypothetical root such as *[pEdd] could surface as [pEd], [pEnd], [pEdId], or several otheroptions. In the past tense, however, comparing t-final and d-final roots and their past tenseforms reveals that most verbs repair the alveolar stop clusters by epenthesis (e.g. /gaId +20 Note that MAX(float) is not active in roots, since a hypothetical root with a floating [–cont] in it couldgive rise to [ ˜w], contrary to fact. So generally in Irish, * ˜w ≫ MAX(float), and the effect of MAX(float) mustbe limited to derived environments.213