Cumulative effects in differential argument encoding and long-distance extraction
Gereon Müller · 2020
Only few grammatical theories can faithfully incorporate cumulative effects. In Optimality Theory, two different means have been suggested to account for cumulativity of constraint interaction, viz., local constraint conjunction and Harmonic Grammar. The present paper considers cumulative effects in morphology (with differential argument encoding) and syntax (with long-distance extraction) and shows that existing analyses in terms of local constraint conjunction cannot be transferred to Harmonic Grammar analyses. Whereas cumulative constraint interaction can be selectively switched off in local conjunction analyses, this is impossible for principled reasons in Harmonic Grammar analyses. Consequently, even though Harmonic Grammar is explicitly designed to capture cumulative effects, it turns out that this approach is systematically unable to derive a certain kind of cumulativity because it cannot prevent unwanted concurrent cumulative interaction.