Markedness relation, identity avoidance, and clausal recursion in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract This paper uses optimality theory (OT) to account for the phenomenon of identity occurrence resulting from clausal recursion, which we argue is derived from syntactic embedding and syntactic adjunction. This paper shows that the interaction between faithfulness and economy constraints allows for the optional deletion of functional morphemes that occur repetitively. The syntactic process of deletion is sensitive to the concept of markedness in a few ways. First, the marked, rather than the unmarked, pattern is the trigger for deletion; second, unmarked constructions have priority over marked constructions as the target for deletion. All of these ideas are integrated into the OT model that involves self-conjoined constraints, the mechanism of harmonic alignment, and the competition between faithfulness and economy constraints.