Dissertation - Michael Becker

(9)MAX gaId DEP MAX sprEda. gaIdId ≻ gaId W Lb. sprEd ≻ sprEdId W LSince the comparative tableau in (9) contains a column that only has W’s in it, thesearch for a ranking can continue 3 , and a consistent grammar for English can be obtained:First, the constraint MAX gaId is installed, and the first winner-loser pair is removed.With only the second winner-loser pair of (9) remaining, DEP can be installed. It willbe added to the ranking below the last constraint to be installed, MAX gaId , and the secondwinner-loser pair is removed. The remaining MAX sprEd is left with no winner-loser pairsto deal with, so it is installed below DEP. The obtained grammar is MAX gaId ≫ DEP ≫MAX sprEd .To motivate the lexical-specific nature of both clones, and discuss the exact nature ofcloning, I turn to a discussion of lexical trends in Turkish.1.1.4 Replicating lexical statisticsIdentifying the existence of irregular patterns in a language is a necessary conditionfor learning a human language successfully, but it is not a sufficient condition. Languagelearners must also find the relative strength of competing patterns. When two behaviorscompete for the same set of lexical items, such as the deletion and the epenthesis thatcompete for the d- and t-final verbs of English, as discussed above, speaker don’t justrecognize the existence of the two patterns, but also recognize how well-attested each3 Once a constraint is cloned, the search for a ranking can either starts from the beginning with the full setof winner-loser pairs, or equivalently, simply continue with the winner-loser pairs that were left over at thepoint of cloning. Starting the search for ranking from scratch only needs to happen when winner-loser pairsare added or removed, as discussed in §4.2.11