Amanda Owen: Application of DM to error analyses

[Martha McGinnis]

I have been reading several things related to Distributed
Morphology (specifically the DM FAQ, and a couple of papers suggested by
my professor)  as I consider the application of DM to a series of
error analyses I have been conducting for data from Hebrew speaking
children.  I am tempted to draw on DM to support some of the hypotheses I
am presenting, however I am relatively naive about the application of a
morphological theory to what is in part a syntactic phenomenon.  If these
questions are too general or if there are references that answer these
questions directly that I have missed, I apologize.

Specifically, I am curious about how DM handles the presence of
default (?non-distinct) features.  I understand, I think, that some forms
are less marked than others and that these are more likely to be chosen.
Thus if a morphological inflection is required and the features are not
clearly specified, then the least-marked form that most matches without
conflicting would be chosen.  I think this is underspecification, but I am
unclear about how it would actually be sorted out.

If features have been argued to reside on multiple XPs (Ritter, 1995...
in Hebrew, Number and Gender reside below TP while Person and
Definiteness are located above TP; all of these elements are argued to
be overtly or covertly realized on the verb through infixes, prefixes,
and suffixes), however the realization of those features phonetically
is in one composite overt form, is this contradictory within DM?

Can one element lower in the tree be in error (use an unmarked form) while
features higher in the tree are completely specified? Ideally, I would
like to think that the process of probe, agree, copy and delete argued for
in Derivation by Phase (chomsky) would apply first, with DM then
completing the phonological representation, but I am not sure if thinking
in terms of orders is accurate nor am I sure that the two methods of
addressing features are not contradictory.

Finally, within DM how would one identify the default features for
a particular language?  i.e. first acquired? least phonologically marked?
least errors?  what is the criterion generally used?

Thank you very much for any assistance that might be available in dealing
with these questions.

Amanda Owen
ajowen at purdue.edu
Doctoral Student
Dept of Audiology and Speech Sciences
Purdue University, Indiana USA