S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
SHIFTING INTERACTIONS AND
COUNTERSHIFTING OPACITY:
A NOTE ON OPACITY IN
HARMONIC SERIALISM
Ezer Rasin
Astratto: This squib proposes to extend the traditional taxonomy of
pairwise process interactions (which contains “feeding,” “bleeding,"
“counterfeeding,” and “counterbleeding”) to include the classes “shift-
ing” and “countershifting.” A process “shifts” another if it does not
feed or bleed it but rather causes it to apply in a different way. “Coun-
tershifting” is the opaque counterfactual inverse of shifting, and it
fills a terminological gap identified by Kiparsky (2015). The class of
countershifting interactions is claimed to be theoretically significant:
Harmonic Serialism is able to apply the opaque process in countershift-
ing interactions but generally not in counterfeeding or counterbleeding.
Keywords: phonology, Harmonic Serialism, opacity, shifting, counter-
shifting
1 Overview
McCarthy (2008) and Elfner (2016) have shown that Harmonic Serial-
ism (HS; McCarthy 2000, 2016), a serial variant of Optimality Theory
(OT; Prince and Smolensky 2004), can generate certain opaque interac-
tions between stress and vowel deletion or epenthesis that seem to
pose a challenge to Parallel OT.1 At the same time, McCarthy (2000,
2007) has argued that HS is unable to generate canonical cases of
counterfeeding and counterbleeding opacity.2 Given our current under-
standing of opacity, this is a mystery: the opaque interactions discussed
by McCarthy and Elfner are not of any familiar type (counterfeeding,
counterbleeding, or any other type in Bakovic´ 2007, 2011), and it
remains unclear whether they are isolated cases or instantiations of a
yet unknown class of opaque interactions.
In this squib, I will argue that there is indeed a generalization
regarding a class of opaque interactions that HS can generate, and that
at least the stress-epenthesis interactions discussed by Elfner, anche
as additional opaque interactions discussed here, are special cases of
this general class. The new generalization, given in (1), will rely on
terminology regarding pairwise process interactions that includes the
new terms shifting and countershifting.
For helpful feedback and discussion, I am grateful to Daniel Asherov,
Roni Katzir, Gereon Mu¨ller, Jochen Trommer, Eva Zimmerman, the audience
at the Leipzig Opacity Symposium (held on 29–30 May 2020), an anonymous
LI reviewer, and especially Eric Bakovic´, whose suggestions have significantly
improved the quality of this squib.
1 This squib assumes familiarity with the terms opacity, feeding, bleeding,
counterfeeding, and counterbleeding, which originated in Kiparsky 1968, 1971
and Newton 1971. See Bakovic´ 2011 for an overview.
2 The restriction to “canonical” cases is important. McCarthy (2000), Tor-
res-Tamarit (2012, 2016), and Mu¨ller (2020) have shown that certain cases of
counterbleeding opacity with special properties can be generated by HS. I dis-
cuss this further in section 3.4.
Linguistic Inquiry, Volume 53, Numero 4, Autunno 2022
836–851
(cid:2) 2021 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https:/ /doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00430
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
837
(1) The Countershifting Generalization
HS can successfully apply the opaque process in counter-
shifting interactions (but generally not in counterbleeding
or counterfeeding).
A process A is said to shift a process B if A does not feed or bleed
B but still affects B’s application by making it apply in a different
modo. Countershifting is the opaque counterfactual inverse of shifting.
The term countershifting will be shown to fill a basic gap in the tradi-
tional taxonomy of opaque process interactions into counterfeeding
and counterbleeding, a gap already identified by Kiparsky (2015).
The new generalization in (1) will be developed in a few steps.
In section 2, I will introduce the new terms shifting and countershifting.
In section 3, I will compare the ability of HS to generate a simple
case of countershifting with its inability to generate a canonical case
of counterbleeding. I will explain why the difference between shifting
and bleeding is responsible for this expressive difference. In section
4, I will illustrate the generality of countershifting opacity using several
attested examples of countershifting from morphophonology. In addi-
zione, I will present a proof-of-concept HS analysis of a case of counter-
shifting opacity involving reduplication. In section 5, I will summarize
my conclusions.
2 Terminology: Shifting and Countershifting
As noted by Kiparsky (2015:15), the traditional taxonomy of pairwise
process interactions into (counter)feeding and (counter)bleeding is in-
complete, as it ignores attested interactions where a process A neither
feeds nor bleeds another process B but still affects B’s application.
The derivation table in (2) illustrates.
(2)
Shifting
/CVCVCV/
APOCOPE
STRESS
CVCVC
CVCVC
´
´
[CVCVC]
In (2), a process of APOCOPE deletes a word-final vowel and is followed
by a process STRESS that assigns stress to the penultimate syllable.
This interaction of APOCOPE and STRESS is not a feeding interaction,
because APOCOPE does not create any additional inputs to STRESS.
Neither is it a bleeding interaction, because APOCOPE eliminates no
potential inputs to STRESS. Invece, STRESS applies regardless of the
application of APOCOPE, but APOCOPE still affects it by making it apply
to a different syllable. Interactions of this nature that cannot be de-
scribed using the notions “feeding” or “bleeding” have been discussed
in Zwicky 1987 and Bakovic´ and Blumenfeld 2020, where they are
referred to as transfusions (a term Zwicky (1987) attributes to an un-
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838
S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
published paper by Donald Churma).3 Here, I will refer to interactions
as in (2) using the term shifting, because APOCOPE can be thought of
as shifting the locus of application of STRESS.
Derivation table (3) shows the reverse ordering of the two pro-
cesses.
(3) Countershifting
/CVCVCV/
STRESS
APOCOPE
CVCVCV´
CVCVC´
[CVCVC]
´
Here, APOCOPE applies after STRESS and makes STRESS opaque: even
though STRESS targets the penultimate syllable, stress falls on the final
syllable on the surface. Following the same reasoning regarding feed-
ing and bleeding as before, this opacity is not a case of counterfeeding
or counterbleeding (neither is it an opacity of any other type identified
in Bakovic´ 2007, 2011); I will refer to it as countershifting.4
It will be useful to give more precise working definitions of shift-
ing and countershifting to make it easier to identify and label new
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3 “If one rule transfuses another, the string to which the second rule applies
is different from what it would be if the first rule didn’t apply—either because
the first rule removes some material to which the second could apply but also
supplies new places for the second to apply in, or because the first rule changes
one string to which the second is applicable into a different string to which
the second rule is applicable” (Zwicky 1987:93). I am grateful to Eric Bakovic´
for bringing this to my attention.
4 On such interactions involving stress, Kiparsky (2015:15) writes, “Here
the terms ‘(non-)feeding’ and ‘(non-)bleeding’, or for that matter ‘overapplica-
tion’ and ‘underapplication’, are not appropriate. . . . It is just that stress is
assigned to a different syllable.”
It is not immediately obvious that the difference between shifting on the
one hand and feeding and bleeding on the other hand is meaningful enough to
justify the introduction of a new term. At first sight, it might seem tempting
to try to revise the definitions of feeding and bleeding to characterize the interac-
tion in (2) by localizing these terms to a certain position in the string. On this
view, APOCOPE might be said to feed STRESS relative to the first syllable of the
word and bleed it relative to the second syllable. A definitional localization of
this kind is already needed in some form or another, given that a process A
can feed another process B in one position in the string while bleeding it in
another. Consider, Per esempio, a process of vowel deletion that removes a
vowel before a following adjacent vowel, and a process of palatalization that
turns /k/ into /kj/ before /i/, as well as their interaction in (20). Here, the net
effect of the application of vowel deletion is that palatalization applies in a
different position in the string. Conversely, In (21) vowel deletion counterfeeds
palatalization in the first half of the string and counterbleeds it in the second
half.
S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
839
interactions of this type.5 In the following definitions, I use (cid:2)to denote
a phonological representation, which will typically be the input to the
derivation, and X((cid:2)) to denote the result of applying the process X to
the representation (cid:2). A proposed working definition of shifting is given
In (4).
(4) A process A shifts another process B in the derivation of
B(UN((cid:2))) if the following properties hold of the relationship
between A, B, E (cid:2):
UN. UN((cid:2)) (cid:2) (cid:2)
B. B((cid:2)) (cid:2) (cid:2)
C. B(UN((cid:2))) (cid:2) UN((cid:2))
D. B(UN((cid:2))) (cid:2) UN(B((cid:2)))
(A applies nonvacuously
A (cid:2))
(B applies nonvacuously
A (cid:2))
(after A applies to (cid:2), B ap-
plies nonvacuously)
(the order of application mat-
ters)
According to this definition, an interaction between a process A and
a later process B is considered a shifting interaction if it meets the
following conditions. Primo, the earlier process A applies nonvacuously
to the input (4UN). Secondo, the later process B would have applied
(io) Feeding
bleeding
(cid:2)
Vowel deletion
Palatalization
/kui kiu/
ki ku
kji ku
[kji ku]
(ii) Counter(feeding
bleeding)
(cid:2)
Palatalization
Vowel deletion
/kui kiu/
kui kjiu
ki kju
[ki kju]
Despite the apparent similarity between shifting and a combination of
localized feeding and bleeding as in (20), it turns out that the two kinds of
interactions are meaningfully different. Intuitively, the difference is that there
are two nonoverlapping contexts of application for palatalization in (20) Ma
only one context of application for STRESS in (2). This difference translates
into divergent theoretical consequences for HS. In particular, as we will see
in section 3, while HS can generate the inverse of shifting in (2)—namely,
countershifting, as in (3)—it cannot generate the inverse of localized feeding
and bleeding in (20)—namely, the interaction in (21). This divergence in theo-
retical consequences is what will justify treating shifting as a distinct, atomic
interaction.
5 I am grateful to Eric Bakovic´ for suggesting the definitions in (4) E
(5) over a more complicated version in a previous draft.
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840
S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
nonvacuously to the input had it applied first (4B). This condition
excludes the possibility that the interaction is a feeding interaction,
because otherwise the context for B would have been created by A
rather than being present in the input. The next condition is that B
still applies nonvacuously after the application of A (4C). Given this
condition, this is not a bleeding interaction, because otherwise A
would have removed the context for B, preventing B from applying.
Finalmente, the order of application of A and B matters, so the two interact.
Taken together, we can interpret these conditions as follows: B can
apply either before or after A, and nevertheless the early (nonvacuous)
application of A results in a nonvacuous interaction. The interaction
In (2) meets these conditions, assuming that A is APOCOPE and B is
STRESS: APOCOPE applies nonvacuously to the input, STRESS can apply
nonvacuously to the input or after APOCOPE, and applying both in the
opposite order would have yielded the different output [CVCV´ C].
We can define countershifting as the opaque counterfactual in-
verse of shifting, as in (5). The interaction in (3) meets this definition,
assuming that A is STRESS and B is APOCOPE, since we have just seen
that APOCOPE would have shifted STRESS had it applied first. Questo
working definition of countershifting will be used in the discussion
of HS, to which I turn next.6
(5) A process B countershifts another process A in the deriva-
tion of B(UN((cid:2))) if B shifts A in the derivation of A(B((cid:2))).
3 The Countershifting Generalization for HS
3.1 Background: HS and the Order of Operations
HS (McCarthy 2000, 2016) is a serial version of OT. Like Parallel
OT, an HS grammar includes one set of ranked, violable constraints.
Unlike in Parallel OT, computation is serial. GEN, which generates
output candidates, is limited to changing the input by at most one
atomic change at a time (epenthesis, deletion, feature change, eccetera.). A
each step of the derivation, EVAL selects the most harmonic candidate
as the output, which then serves as the input for the next step. GEN
and EVAL loop until convergence.
In HS, the constraint ranking determines the order of operations.
As an example, consider a hypothetical language with the following
two processes: palatalization of /k/ before /i/ and high vowel deletion
in a nonfinal open syllable. Assume an HS-based grammar where the
markedness constraint that triggers palatalization is *ki and the con-
6 Notice that the proposed working definition of shifting is not fine-grained
enough to exclude the interaction in (io) in footnote 4—an edge case that com-
bines feeding and bleeding—and thus the definition of countershifting does
not exclude (ii) in footnote 4. As mentioned in that footnote, a meaningful
difference between shifting and (io) seems to be that (io) involves multiple non-
overlapping contexts of application for a single process. A more precise defini-
tion of shifting would presumably be sensitive to this difference and exclude
(io), but this is not a direction I will develop in this squib.
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
841
straint that triggers high vowel deletion in nonfinal open syllables is
*iCV (the constraints in this section are taken from McCarthy’s (2007)
discussion of Bedouin Hijazi Arabic, which will be reviewed below).
Consider the hypothetical underlying representation (UR) /kirmila/,
to which the two processes apply without interacting, yielding the
produzione [kjirm.la]. If *ki outranks *iCV, palatalization would apply first.
In the first step of the HS derivation, given in (6), there would be at
least three output candidates: the faithful candidate (6UN), the candidate
in which palatalization applies (6B), and the candidate in which dele-
tion applies (6C) (since GEN cannot make more than one change at
every step, there is no candidate in which both processes apply; syllabi-
fication is assumed not to count as an additional process). Since candi-
date (6B) is the only candidate that does not violate the highest-ranking
*ki, palatalization is the only process that applies in Step I.
(6)
Palatalization precedes deletion, Step I
/kirmila/
*ki
*iCV
MAX
IDENT[back]
UN.
kir.mi.la
*!
☞
B.
kjir.mi.la
*
*
*
C.
kirm.la
*!
*
The output of Step I, [kjir.mi.la], serves as the input to Step II (by
assumption, the constraint ranking does not change between steps).
Now that *ki has been resolved, constraint evaluation can attend to
the next constraint in the ranking, *iCV, which triggers the deletion
of the second /i/, yielding the output [kjirm.la] as shown in (7).
(7) Palatalization precedes deletion, Step II
/kjir.mi.la/
*ki
*iCV
MAX
IDENT[back]
UN.
kjir.mi.la
☞
B.
kjirm.la
*!
*
As all markedness constraints have been resolved, the faithful candi-
date will win in Step III (not shown here), E [kjirm.la] is the final
produzione. It is easy to verify that an alternative constraint ranking, Dove
*iCV outranks *ki, would have produced the same output, but with
the reverse order of application of the two noninteracting processes.
Despite the serial nature of HS, McCarthy (2000, 2007) has shown
that HS cannot generate canonical cases of counterbleeding and coun-
terfeeding opacity. Understanding the failure of HS on counterbleeding
will make it easier to see why it succeeds on countershifting. Therefore,
in the next section I review McCarthy’s (2007) demonstration of why
HS fails on counterbleeding in Bedouin Hijazi Arabic and characterize
the reason for the failure.
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
3.2 Why HS Fails on Counterbleeding
In Bedouin Hijazi Arabic (Al-Mozainy 1981, McCarthy 2007), palatal-
ization (k N kj before i) is counterbled by syncope (i N (cid:2) in nonfinal
open syllables), two processes we have seen in the previous section.
The result is mappings like /Ça(cid:2)kim-in/ N [Ça(cid:2)kjm-in], where palatal-
ization is opaque, as it applies even though its context for application
is no longer present on the surface. As McCarthy notes, the challenge
for HS is to apply palatalization before syncope. The tableau for Step
I of the derivation of /Ça(cid:2)kim-in/ is given in (8).
(8) Attempt at counterbleeding, Step I
/ Ça‰kim-in/
*ki
*iCV
MAX
IDENT[back]
UN.
Ça‰kji.min
☞
B.
Ça‰k.min
*!
*
*
Here, *ki outranks *iCV, a ranking needed to try to make palatalization
apply before syncope. The ranking of *iCV over MAX is needed to
trigger syncope, and the ranking of *ki over IDENT[back] is needed to
trigger palatalization. In this tableau, candidate (8UN) is obtained by
applying palatalization to the UR, and candidate (8B) is obtained by
applying syncope before palatalization. The problem for HS, since
syncope destroys the context for palatalization, is that applying syn-
cope to the UR in the first step of the derivation satisfies the mar-
kedness constraint triggering syncope ((cid:3) *iCV) and the markedness
constraint triggering palatalization ((cid:3)*ki). The result is that candidate
(8B), in which syncope has applied first, is incorrectly chosen as the
winner. The shaded cell in the tableau highlights the absence of a
violation that causes the failure.
The reasoning that leads to a problem for HS is general and goes
beyond this particular case of counterbleeding. In canonical counter-
bleeding interactions, a process A applies before a process B that des-
troys A’s context for application. Since B removes the context for A,
applying B first would satisfy the markedness constraints that trigger
both processes. This results in the application of B to the UR, Quale,
by destroying the context for A, incorrectly blocks A’s application. IL
failure, Poi, is directly related to the following property of counter-
bleeding:
(9) UN(B((cid:2))) (cid:3) B((cid:2))
(B removes the context for A)
This property is not shared by countershifting, where A(B((cid:2))) (cid:2)
B((cid:2)), due to condition (4C) in the inverse definition of shifting. In
the next section, we will see that if the opaque interaction is one
of countershifting rather than counterbleeding, the problem indeed
disappears.
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
843
3.3 Why HS Succeeds on Countershifting
Consider again the schematic countershifting interaction between
STRESS and APOCOPE from section 2, and the mapping /CVCVCV/ N
[CVCV´ C] that results in final stress on the surface. To best highlight
the difference between countershifting and counterbleeding, I will first
assume that stress assignment is triggered by a cover markedness con-
straint STRESS!, which penalizes a surface representation unless its
final two syllables comprise a trochaic foot (the constraint STRESS!
will be decomposed into more familiar constraints below, after the
comparison with counterbleeding). Apocope is triggered by the con-
straint *V#. Similarly to the counterbleeding case, the tableau in (10)
has two candidates: candidate (10UN), in which the first process (here,
STRESS) has applied, and candidate (B), in which the second process
(here, APOCOPE) has applied. Differently from the counterbleeding
case, here candidate (B) receives a fatal violation (shaded) from the
highest-ranking markedness constraint, and candidate (UN)—the correct
candidate in Step I—wins.
(10) Countershifting, Step I (schematic, to be updated below)
/CVCVCV/
STRESS!
*V#
MAX
IDENT[stress]
UN.
☞
´
CV(CVCV)
*
*
B.
CVCVC
*!
*
Why does countershifting behave differently from counterbleed-
ing? Given the shifting component of countershifting, APOCOPE would
not destroy the context for STRESS if applied first; Piuttosto, it would shift
Esso (Vedere, in particular, condition (4C) in the definition of shifting). E
shifting means that STRESS could still apply to [CVCVC] even if APOC-
OPE had applied first. In terms of constraint satisfaction, the ability of
STRESS to apply to [CVCVC] translates into the shaded violation of
the constraint STRESS!. As a result of this violation. Step I of the
derivation succeeds and STRESS correctly applies before APOCOPE.
As was the case with counterbleeding, this reasoning is general
and goes beyond this particular case of countershifting. In countershift-
ing interactions, a process A applies before a process B that can shift
A’s context for application. Since B shifts the context for A but does
not remove it, A could apply even after the application of B, so apply-
ing B first would not satisfy the markedness constraint that triggers
UN. This results in the correct application of A to the UR, thus avoiding
the problem for counterbleeding in Step I of the derivation. The gener-
ality of this reasoning will be further illustrated in section 4, Quale
shows that the same logic applies in an analysis of a different case of
countershifting involving reduplication rather than stress. The result
is the Countershifting Generalization in (1).
l
D
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UN
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e
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F
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:
/
/
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io
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e
C
T
.
M
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/
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G
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/
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/
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_
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
The derivation is not yet complete. Dopo [CV(CV´ CV)] has been
selected as the output of Step I, the grammar must ensure that APOCOPE
applies in Step II, despite making penultimate stress non-surface-true.
Given the logic of OT, the challenge in Step II is easy to address,
since penultimate-stress assignment can be interpreted as a violable
preference. Penultimate stress will be the default, but final stress will
be tolerated in order to satisfy a higher-ranked restriction against word-
final vowels. More concretely, we can decompose STRESS! along the
lines of McCarthy’s (2008) analysis of stress-syncope opacity. In par-
ticular, STRESS! can be decomposed into a constraint like HAVEFOOT!,
which requires any foot structure,7 as well as various constraints re-
garding properties of this structure, such as ALIGNR, which requires
a foot to be aligned to the right edge of the prosodic word; TROCHEE
(omitted from the tableaux below for reasons of space), which requires
a foot to be trochaic; and FTBIN, which requires a foot to be binary.
The violable preference for penultimate stress can be represented by
ranking FTBIN below *V#. Tableau (11) repeats Step I with the new
set of constraints, and tableau (12) shows that Step II yields the desired
produzione [CV(CV´ C)]. In Step III, shown in (13), the derivation will
converge on [CV(CV´ C)] (candidate (13UN)) despite its violation of the
markedness constraint FTBIN. On the assumption that GEN does not
have a stress-shifting operation, candidates like (13B) cannot be gener-
ated. Stress can only move as a result of a combination of two opera-
zioni: foot removal and foot (Rif)assignment (Elfner 2016:8). Since
foot removal (candidate (13C)) would incur a violation of the highest-
ranked HAVEFOOT!, there is no way to shift stress to the penultimate
position to satisfy FTBIN, and the correct candidate with final stress
wins.
(11) Countershifting, Step I
/CVCVCV/
HAVEFOOT! ALIGNR
*V#
FTBIN
MAX
IDENT[stress]
UN.
☞
´
CV(CVCV)
*
*
B.
CVCVC
*!
*
(12) Countershifting, Step II
´
/CV(CVCV)/
HAVEFOOT! ALIGNR
*V#
FTBIN
MAX
IDENT[stress]
UN.
´
CV(CVCV)
B.
☞
CV(CVC)
´
*!
*
*
7 The constraint labels adopted by McCarthy have been replaced here for
simplicity of exposition. See McCarthy 2008 for analogous constraints with
different labels and some conceptual justification.
l
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N
o
UN
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e
D
F
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:
/
/
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e
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M
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/
/
/
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l
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_
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_
0
0
4
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F
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sì
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
845
(13) Countershifting, Step III
/CV(CVC)/
´
HAVEFOOT! ALIGNR
*V#
FTBIN
MAX
IDENT[stress]
UN.
☞
CV(CVC)
´
B.
C.
´
(CVCVC)
CVCVC
*!
*
*
Note that Step I, in which the opaque process applied, was suc-
cessful directly due to the countershifting status of the interaction.
Tuttavia, I have not provided a general characterization of the success
of HS in Step II and Step III, which relied on a specific decomposition
of the markedness constraint responsible for stress. This leaves open
the possibility that these steps might behave differently in other
countershifting interactions. Per esempio, in section 4 we will see an
analysis of countershifting opacity involving reduplication in which
Steps II and III are completely trivial once the opaque process has
applied in Step I, and no decomposition of the markedness constraint
is needed. Since it is also conceivable that HS would fail on Step II
or III in currently unknown countershifting interactions, (1) is given
as a narrow statement about the application of the opaque process
rather than as a general statement about the success of HS on complete
countershifting interactions.
3.4 Noncanonical Counterbleeding Is Not Countershifting
According to McCarthy (2000:13), HS can account for counterbleed-
ing opacity in a limited set of cases with special properties. In this
section, I present McCarthy’s example of such cases and note that it
is meaningfully different from countershifting.
McCarthy’s example is a hypothetical interaction, suggested by
Alan Prince, where a process of postvocalic spirantization applies
while a later deletion process removes its triggering vowel. What al-
lows HS to succeed on this interaction is a decomposition of deletion
into a two-step process involving first the deletion of the segment’s
featural content (reduction) and then the deletion of its autosegmental
V slot (U-syncope), as shown in (14).
(14) UR
/darabat/
Postvocalic spirantization
daravat
Vowel reduction
Syncope of U
darUvat
darvat
Here, postvocalic spirantization is triggered by any vowel, featureless
or not. This interaction is not a canonical counterbleeding interaction
in the sense that the later process (U-syncope) that has the potential
to bleed an earlier process (spirantization) cannot apply to the input
l
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N
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UN
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:
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/
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M
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/
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G
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–
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F
/
/
/
/
5
3
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_
UN
_
0
0
4
3
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sì
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846
S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
without the help of a third process (reduction). Neither is this a coun-
tershifting interaction, because no process has the potential to shift
any other.
On the assumption that full deletion is not a GEN operation, IL
deletion process that can bleed postvocalic spirantization cannot apply
in Step I and simultaneously satisfy the markedness constraints that
trigger both processes, here *Vb (for spirantization), REDUCE (reduc-
zione), and *U (empty-vowel deletion). The effect of this restriction on
GEN is highlighted in tableau (15), where the otherwise generable
candidate (15B), which would have satisfied all markedness con-
straints, is struck out. The correct candidate (15UN) is selected in Step
I and the problem discussed in section 3.2 for counterbleeding is
avoided (see McCarthy 2000:13–16 for the full story). The HS analysis
of a different counterbleeding interaction in Torres-Tamarit 2016 uses
a similar strategy.
(15) Noncanonical counterbleeding, Step I
/darabat/
*Vb REDUCE MAX-PLACE
IDENT[cont]
*U
☞
UN.
daravat
B.
C.
darbat
darUbat
*!
*
*!
*
*
This example illustrates that the reported success of HS on some coun-
terbleeding interactions relies on a decomposition of the two interact-
ing processes rather than on similarities between the interaction and
countershifting, further supporting the distinction between counter-
shifting and counterbleeding.
4 The Generality of Countershifting Opacity
4.1 Attested Cases of Countershifting Opacity
Countershifting opacity can arise with persistent processes that ap-
ply no matter what, even if their original context is modified. As we
have seen, this includes stress, which in many languages necessarily
applies in every word. Other relevant processes include reduplication
in morphophonology, which can obligatorily realize reduplicative mor-
phemes, and agreement-type processes like nasal-place assimilation
(though I have yet to find an attested case involving the latter).8 Here
is a short list of attested countershifting interactions.
8 A hypothetical example of countershifting involving agreement is the fol-
lowing: a process of nasal-place assimilation changes the place of articulation
of an underlying velar nasal to the place of articulation of the following stop,
and another process turns /p/ to [T] word-finally. This results in countershifting
interactions like the following: /√p#/ N mp# N [mt#]. Here, a reverse order
of application would have derived [nt#].
l
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
847
Elfner (2016) presents HS analyses of multiple languages with
opaque stress-epenthesis interactions. In Dakota (Shaw 1985), for ex-
ample, stress falls on the second syllable of the word, unless the second
vowel is epenthetic, in which case stress is initial (16UN). In Syrian
Arabic (Kiparsky 2015), stress is assigned to the final syllable if and
only if it is superheavy. On the surface, Tuttavia, stress also falls on a
heavy syllable derived from an underlying superheavy syllable through
degemination (16B). In Alsea (Buckley 2008), which will be analyzed
below, a reduplication process that copies the initial C(C)V portion
of the stem becomes opaque through syncope, which deletes the stem’s
vowel (16C).
(16) UN. Epenthesis countershifts stress in Dakota (Shaw 1985,
Elfner 2016)
/?ap/ N ?a´p N [?a´pa]
‘beaver’
B. Degemination countershifts stress in Syrian Arabic
(Kiparsky 2015)
/bi-mUdd/ N bimU´dd N [bimU´d]
‘he spreads, extends’
C. Syncope countershifts reduplication in Alsea (Buckley
2008)
/CV-ciqw-i/ N ci-ciqw-i N [ci-cqw-i]
laughing’
‘always
If the Countershifting Generalization is correct, we expect HS to
be able to correctly apply the opaque processes in all of these cases,
even when they seem quite different from the stress-apocope interac-
tion analyzed in section 3. Elfner (2016) has already shown this to be
true for stress-epenthesis interactions. In the next section, I will illus-
trate this using opaque reduplication in Alsea (16C).9
9 In addition to the attested types of interaction listed here, we have seen
that HS can generate opaque stress-deletion interactions, as in the hypothetical
example presented in section 2 and analyzed in section 3.3. As mentioned in
section 1, McCarthy (2008) has already shown that HS can generate certain
opaque stress-syncope interactions. One example comes from Macushi Carib,
where bisyllabic iambic feet are assigned from left to right. Then, syncope
deletes the vowel of the weak syllable in every foot. The result is derivations
like (io).
(io) Syncope almost countershifts stress in Macushi Carib (McCarthy
2008)
/wanamari/ N (wa(cid:3)na)(ma.(cid:4)ri) N ((cid:3)wna(cid:2))((cid:4)mri(cid:2))
‘mirror’
This interaction bears some resemblance to countershifting, because if the same
vowels had been deleted before stress assignment, the result would have been
a different stress pattern. Nevertheless, it does not meet the definition of coun-
tershifting in (5), because if stress-sensitive syncope applied first, the footless
input would not have provided its context of application, so (4UN) would not
have been met. This state of affairs is familiar from the type of interaction that
Bakovic´ (2007) calls “self-destructive feeding,” where a feeding interaction
results in opacity. I leave it for future research to better understand the classifica-
tion of McCarthy’s example and to determine whether there are attested stress-
deletion interactions that meet the definition of countershifting in (5).
l
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
4.2 Analysis of Reduplication-Syncope Countershifting in Alsea
In this section, I provide a proof-of-concept analysis of countershifting
involving reduplication in Alsea (formerly spoken in central Oregon,
USA). My goal is to illustrate that once an interaction is identified as
countershifting, an HS analysis is readily available using the logic of
section 3, even when stress is not involved.
According to Buckley’s (2008) description of reduplication pat-
terns in Alsea, one type of reduplication involves a prefix that copies
the following C(C)V syllable-portion from the stem. A process of
syncope deletes the stem’s vowel in certain morphosyntactic environ-
wt-ay-x⋅ ‘began to fight’ vs.
ments independently of reduplication (cx⋅
wat-iyu ‘fighting’; cxwt-t ‘push him!’ vs. cixwt-an-x⋅ ‘pushed him’).
cx⋅
Reduplication is made opaque by syncope. The two examples in (17UN)
illustrate the regular application of reduplication in an environment
where syncope does not apply. In (17b–d), a CV syllable is redupli-
cated, even though the copied vowel of the stem is deleted by syncope
(the syncopated vowel can be seen in the nonreduplicated basic forms).
(17)
Reduplicated
UN. tqi-tqi≠-i-tx⋅
B. ≠u-≠t-sx⋅ -aw-t
C. ci-cqw-i
D. pa-pltkw-t’
‘are crying’
‘swimming, diving’
‘always laughing’
‘chair’
Basic
tqi≠-iy-m ‘they (will) cry’
≠ut-sx⋅ -a
‘swims (often)’
ciqw-iy-x⋅
‘began to laugh’
paltkw-x⋅
‘sit down!’
These alternations suggest an ordering of reduplication before syncope
and a countershifting interaction. Applying syncope first would not
have fed or bled reduplication. Piuttosto, it would have caused reduplica-
tion to copy different phonological material: presumably, Per esempio,
applying syncope first to ‘always laughing’ in (17C) would have re-
sulted in the mapping /RED-ciqw-i/ N [cqwi-cqw-i]. Similar counter-
shifting interactions in the related language Klamath have been dis-
cussed in Barker 1964, Clements and Keyser 1983, McCarthy and
Prince 1995, and Zoll 2002.
Assuming a templatic theory of reduplication in HS along the
lines of McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin’s (2012), and following the
reasoning of the HS analysis of countershifting in section 3, a proof-
of-concept HS analysis of the Alsea interaction will work as follows.
Abstracting away from the details of McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin’s
theory, reduplication will be triggered by the syllabic template (cid:3)[CV],
which needs to be filled by a (potentially complex) onset and a vowel.
The constraint that requires filling the template will be FILLTEMPLATE!.
The copying operation that fills templates violates the faithfulness
constraint *COPY. Syncope will be triggered by the simplified *VSTEM.
In Step I, the copying candidate (18UN) is correctly selected. Given
the countershifting nature of the interaction, candidate (18B) fatally
violates the constraint that triggers reduplication. In Step II, nothing
special needs to be said and the correct output candidate (19B) wins.
Since all markedness constraints are satisfied, the derivation will con-
verge in Step III (not shown).
l
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o
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H
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T
P
:
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/
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M
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S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
849
(18) Alsea countershifting, Step I
/(cid:2)
[CV]-ciqw-i/
FILLTEMPLATE!
*VSTEM
MAX
*COPY
☞
UN.
ci-ciqw-i
B.
(cid:2)
[CV]-cqw-i
*
*
*!
*
(19) Alsea countershifting, Step II
/ci-ciqw-i/
FILLTEMPLATE!
*VSTEM
MAX
*COPY
UN.
ci-ciqw-i
☞
B.
ci-cqw-i
5 Conclusione
*!
*
This squib makes two contributions. The first, which is not theoreti-
cally significant in and of itself, is the introduction of the new terms
shifting and countershifting. While shifting interactions have already
been identified in the literature (under the name transfusions; Zwicky
1987), the term countershifting fills a gap in the traditional taxonomy
of pairwise process interactions. The second contribution is the obser-
vation that some opaque interactions that can be generated by HS are
not isolated cases but rather special cases of a general class of opaque
interactions: the class of countershifting opacity. The identification of
countershifting opacity, together with the logic concerning the ability
of HS to deal with countershifting interactions in general, constitutes
progress in our evaluation of HS as a theory of opacity. This result
raises questions that I have not been able to address in the scope of
this squib, ad esempio: Can HS generate any countershifting interaction
or is it limited to interactions with certain properties? What is the
broader typology of countershifting, and what is the range of processes
that can participate in countershifting interactions? Hopefully, ulteriore
research into countershifting will reveal the answers to these questions.
Riferimenti
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Ezer Rasin
Linguistics Department
Tel Aviv University
rasin@tauex.tau.ac.il
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