PREC(A, B, C) IN OT-CC: Derived environment effect in Polish Revisited

Abstract

In rule-based phonology, derived environment effects refer to thesituations where a phonological process applies only to derived environments. These effects have been analyzed within Optimality Theory with locally conjoined constraints (OT-LCC) (Łubowicz 1998) as well as rule-based phonology (Rubach 1984). In this paper, I analyze derived environment effects within Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (OT-CC), which has recently been proposed by McCarthy (2006). In the OT-CC analysis of this paper, velar palatalization and spirantization in Polish are revisited. I propose that derived environment effects be simply a result of the satisfaction of PREC constraint in OT-CC. I also propose that PREC should be extended to account for the doubly derived environment effect in Polish. In Polish, velar palatalization is explained by the ranking PREC(R-ANCH, ID(cor)) PAL and spirantization is explained by extending PREC(R-ANCH, ID(cor)) to PREC(R-ANCH, ID(cor), ID(cont)), which should be ranked above two markedness constraints PAL and *.