Prof. Robert M. Vago (Queens College & Graduate Center, CUNY)

An Optimality Theoretic Account of Hungarian Inflections

31. May 2016 in the Auditorium of RIL

Abstract:

The purpose of this presentation is twofold: (a) to provide novel analyses for the verbal inflectional system of Hungarian within the Optimality Theory framework, and (b) to advocate for Gouskova’s (2013) approach to exceptionality, whereby exceptionality is the property of morphemes that are indexed for the reranking of constraints in the hierarchy. Three main topics will be addressed:  Lowering, Vowel Deletion, and Vowel Epenthesis, providing evidence for VC long vowels, geminate structure, empty prosodic slots, and default feature values.