Assimilation to the unmarked

Eric Bakovic

In this paper I explain how an apparent problem arises when one considers input 
forms with uneven ratios of the values of an assimilatory feature.  If the 
usual positional considerations of assimilation are irrelevant, then an 
effect dubbed 'majority rule' emerges.  Majority rule is a pathological 
consequence of the vertical symmetry of input-output faithfulness whereby an 
arbitrarily better-represented feature value overrules the other value, 
resulting in assimilation of the latter to the former rather than vice-versa.  
I propose to circumvent the majority rule effect by invoking the local 
conjunction of co-relevant markedness and faithfulness constraints.  A local 
conjunction of this type is asymmetrically violated by a mapping from an 
unmarked feature value to a marked one, and is universally ranked above its 
conjuncts - its faithfulness conjunct in particular - thereby heading off the 
apparent problem induced by the symmetry of faithfulness.  This solution yields
the successful description of an attested pattern, assimilation to the 
unmarked, which is furthermore claimed to correspond to the pattern of 
dominant-recessive vowel harmony.