Consonant cluster neutralisation and targeted constraints

Abstract

In this paper, I propose an optimality-theoretic account of the generalisation that deletion processes that apply to intervocalic biconsonantal clusters canonically delete the first consonant (schematically, VC₁C₂V → VC₂V). The approach to contextual neutralisation proposed here has two main components. First, I follow the licensing-by-cue framework (e.g. Steriade 1997) in identifying ‘weak’ elements as those without strong perceptual cues. Second, I argue that the constraints responsible for contextual neutralisation ‘target’ weak elements. This approach captures the deletion generalisation above, because the relevant targeted constraint prefers only the correct output VC₂V (from which the weak consonant C₁ has been removed), not the incorrect output VC₁V. Intuitively, the representation containing a weak element (VC₁C₂V) is compelled to neutralise to a representation that is perceptually very similar (VC₂V). The targeted-constraint approach is formalised by replacing the standard violation-based definition of OT optimisation with a new definition – which is equivalent except when ‘targeted’ constraints are involved – based on harmonic orderings. The approach is shown to extend to certain cases of (i) contextually determined feature neutralisation and (ii) phonological opacity.