Surface-to-Surface Morphology: when your Representations turn into Constraints

Traditional morphology, that cranks out ‘underlying representations’ destined for phonology, has a serial character that makes it an odd bedfellow to parallel OT. The problem becomes all the more acute once one recognizes the need for ‘surface-to-surface’ faithfulness constraints (Benua 1997, Burzio 1994a, Kenstowicz 1996, Steriade 1996), given the ability of the latter to do -in parallelsome of the work that the old morphology did in series. This paper proposes a theory of surface-to-surface relations that has full morphological capabilities. It does so by introducing the seemingly radical but actually natural assumption that representations are clusters of entailments that directly condition other representations. That assumption is shown to yield a faithfulness function that automatically manages distance among representations, by pressuring close neighbors to ‘neutralize’. The latter function is then shown to reduce otherwise paradoxical patterns of allomorphy to an effect that is independently attested at the segmental level, where weak contrasts are eliminated. The proposal thus relates well to the ‘Dispersion Theory’ of Flemming (1995) and the theory of neutralization of Steriade (1994, 1997b), which account for those segmental effects. It also connects with the theory of Wilson (1999, in preparation) which in turn establishes an important link between phonological neutralization and phonological opacity (counterfeeding/ counterbleeding effects).