Paradigms, Optimal and Otherwise: A case for skepticism
Jonathan Bobaljik, UConn
In this talk, I will try to lay out some general
concerns that have arisen in the morphological and morpho-syntactic
literature against the use of paradigms as more than an epiphenomenal
product. I will try to show that these considerations pose
non-insignificant challenges for those who would seek to use
paradigms in the way some current phonological models do (such as
OP). That is, I suggest that there are existing prima facie arguments
against the kinds of assumptions about paradigms that appear to be
implicit in OP-like models.