Abstract A lot of recent work in computational phonology seeks to pinpoint the complexity of phonotactic dependencies from a formal perspective. Numerous mathematical classes have been proposed, but Graf (2017) subsumes them all under the umbrella of interval-based strictly piecewise dependencies (IBSP). IBSP treats all phonological structures as strings that are subject to non-local constraints. Every local dependency is reanalyzed as a non-local constraint that is restricted to a locality domain of bounded size. If all phonotactic dependencies are IBSP, then we should only encounter phenomena that are either local or non-local, but not both. I show that this prediction is not borne out: several attested phenomena combine local and non-local information. However, a more relaxed notion of locality domains allows IBSP to produce these patterns while avoiding overgeneration. The make-up of these relaxed locality domains bears a striking resemblance to c-command in syntax, supporting the idea that phonology and syntax may be closely related on a computational level.
@Misc{Graf17NELStalk,
author = {Graf, Thomas},
title = {Locality Domains and Phonological C-Command Over Strings},
year = {2017},
note = {Slides of a talk given at the 48th Annual Meeting of the {N}orth {E}ast {L}inguistic {S}ociety ({NELS} 48), {O}ctober 27--29, {U}niversity of {I}celand, {R}eykjavík, {I}celand}
}