A Constraint-based Analysis of Dissimilation in English

This paper deals with two different cases of dissimilation in English: traditional and r-deletion dissimilation examples. The structure preservation case of dissimilation is analyzed by adopting the meta-constraint ranking, which distinguishes root/stem and affix in their faithfulness realization in phonological processes. The trigger of dissimilation is related to the OCP requirement banning identical elements within a word. The second type of dissimilation is about non-structure preserving case where either of the two retroflex liquids is deleted in the output. The concept of positional faithfulness is adopted in the account of [r] dissimilation. It is revealed in this study that positional faithfulness needs to be specified more to reflect various combinations of category proposed in positional faithfulness.