The sound pattern of Japanese, with its characteristic pitch accent                  system and rich segmental alternations, has played an important role in modern                  phonology, from structuralist phonemics to current constraint-based theories. In                  Japanese Morphophonemics Junko Ito and Armin Mester provide the first book-length                  treatment of central issues in Japanese phonology from the perspective of Optimality                  Theory.In Optimality Theory (OT), a generative grammar (including its phonological                  component) is built directly on the often conflicting demands of different                  grammatical principles and incorporates a specific kind of optimization as the means                  of resolving these conflicts. OT offers a new perspective from which to view many of                  the processes, alternations, and generalizations that are the traditional subject                  matter of phonology. Using the phonology of compounds as an analytical thread, Ito                  and Mester revisit central aspects of the sound pattern of Japanese and submit them                  to the rigor of OT. In pursuing both well-known and less-explored issues in this                  area, they show that an optimality-theoretic approach not only provides new                  solutions to old puzzles but also suggests interesting new questions for both                  descriptive work and theoretical research.

Japanese Morphophonemics: Markedness and Word Structure (Linguistic Inquiry Monographs) PDF

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