Traces in Phonology and Morphology

In syntax, traces are a representational device that allows linguistics rules or constraints to refer to structures of past steps in the derivation that are themselves no longer present. Jochen has, throughout his career, employed various mechanisms that share trace-like characteristics for patterns and problems in morphology and phonology. In his dissertation on Distributed Morphology in Optimality Theory (Trommer 2001), he argues explicitly for two-level markedness constraints that count violations in the output of morphology but refer to information present only in its input. This is needed to account for, for example, the distribution of Menominee verbal agreement affixes. Similarly, much of his later work has been couched in the framework of Containment Theory, where the input is completely contained in the output, i.e. true deletion is not possible - only phonetic non-parsing of input material is available. Constraints can either refer to the entire representation or to the phonetically parsed part of it. This is formalized as the Cloning Hypothesis in his habilitation thesis (Trommer 2011). In his most recent work on Harmonic Layer Theory, Jochen uses representational strength as a way to retain information from previous cycles in later cycles. This newest iteration of traces in phonology tracks e.g. the number of times a vowel has been stressed in the earlier derivation in Arabic syncope (Trommer 2019). This workshop is aimed at bringing together people who have worked on the topic of traces in phonology and morphology, with or without Jochen. It will feature arguments for approaches that have been influenced by Jochens work, reanalyses - in different frameworks - of data similar to Jochen's, and general discussions of whether and in which form the ability to refer back to information from earlier derivational steps is necessary. Overall, this workshop will show how Jochen's research has left traces in the fields of phonology and morphology.

The workshop will take place on Monday, February 19th, 2024 at the Vortragsaal der Bibliotheca Albertina (Beethovenstr. 6, 04107 Leipzig).