An OT model of case marking in Fore

Abstract

This paper addresses a complex interaction of morphology, syntax and pragmatics and proposes a formal model to account for such phenomena. In particular, I present and discuss data from Fore, a Papuan language, which is both head- and dependent-marking. In head-marking (pro-drop) languages when both arguments of a transitive verb are third person, there is a potential ambiguity as to the identity of the subject and object. In Fore, this potential ambiguity is avoided by adding NPs to the clause and a few apparent strategies for distinguishing the core arguments may be observed: these include appealing to a ‘default’ interpretation based on the (relative) animacies of the arguments, word order freezing, and case marking (Donohue & Donohue 1998). These phenomena have a natural explanation in terms of the markedness of associations between animacy and grammatical function, but such functional explanations typically have no place in generative grammar. In this paper, I develop an account of these data that formalizes the intuitive functional explanation within Optimality Theory. I make use of harmonic alignment of universal prominence scales following Aissen (1999, 2003) to define the contexts, ‘floating’ constraints to model the optionality of case marking, and use comprehension-directed bidirectional optimization to model the general interpretive principle of ambiguity avoidance. Keywords: case-marking, Fore, Optimality Theory. References: Aissen, Judith. 1999. Markedness and subject choice in Optimality Theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17: 673–711. Aissen, Judith. 2003. Differential object marking: Iconicity vs. economy. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21: 435–483. Donohue, Cathryn, and Mark Donohue. 1998. Fore case marking. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 28 (1-2): 69–98.