Conflicts of Vowel Governed Constraints in Arabic Derivation

Abstract

The paradigm of constraints that is proposed by optimality theory as a substitute to the rules paradigm has influenced all the fields of linguistics. Different phonological phenomena in different many languages have been investigated in terms of optimality theory. The phonological structures of Arabic suffer from some changes like deletion, substitution and other processes that underlie the systematic derivation (Al-ishtiqaaq) of vowels. In terms of Optimality Theory, this paper investigates two issues: First, the conflicted faithfulness and markedness constraints that govern vowels through derivation, and second, how these constraints are ranked. Finding out such constraints can provide the storage of the universal constraints by new ones and discovering how Arabic ranks these universal constraints. The current study adopted the mechanism that is proposed by the optimality theory. At the same time, the paper suggested some constraints that has been tested and formulated according to the theory in question. The ranking of these constraints also have been investigated. The study led to demonstrating the existence of the suggested constraints that work during derivation. It also represented how these constraints are ranked. Some of the discovered constraints are already found in the universal storage of constraints and others are peculiar to Arabic. It is found that the SAK constraint (the absence of the Arabic short vowels) plays a fundamental role in vowels derivation.