Rachel Walker, University of Southern California

Correspondence relations among segments in an output, known as surface correspondence, provide a means for enforcing (dis)agreement among segments (Hansson 2001, Rose & Walker 2004, Bennett 2013). In this talk, I examine a problematic prediction of proposals about the formal properties of surface correspondence for harmony patterns that are partially overlapping in a language. I discuss the types of refinements necessary for a surface correspondence account, and consider implications for the theoretical approach in general.

More specifically, this talk identifies a novel and problematic typological prediction of transitive surface correspondence relations with chain-adjacent evaluation of identity, dubbed the Closest Correspondent Trigger Prediction. The problem is exemplified by the interaction of two overlapping vowel harmonies in the dialect of Pasiego Montañes, where a target vowel agrees with different trigger segments for different features. A revised feature-restricted evaluation of identity constraints that operate over surface correspondents is proposed, where evaluation is restricted to the subset of correspondents that share a given set of features. This move essentially merges the previous division of labor in surface correspondence theory between constraints that promote interactions among similar segments and those that enforce identity between such segments. The result is a theory where surface identity constraints are the prime locus of pattern-shaping and there is a much reduced role for constraints that drive surface correspondence. Future directions on the status of constraints that drive surface correspondence and the treatment of locality are considered. 

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