| This dissertation investigates the syntactic OCP effects from the theoretical perspective of Optimality Theory. After first discussing previous research on how the OCP has been dealt with to account for linguistic phenomena which shows evidences of identity avoidance across the realm of phonology and morphology in various languages. I develop a typology of syntactic OCP effects, which classifies the OCP applied to the syntactic domain into four types, surface adjacency, multiple occurrences, phonology-syntax interface, and branching consistency.;I also argue that the classification should include all the observable syntactic OCP effects one can find in any language. The previous academic contributions made to the OCP were exclusively grounded in phonology and morphology, this typological study brings an innovation to the OCP theory by suggesting that the trigger of OCP violations can be purely syntactic configurations, enhanced by the interrelation of branching consistency and markedness theory.;My dissertation examines the pieces of constructions that are argued to be OCP-triggered all over the major phrasal categories in Hakka, including noun phrases, verb phrases and preposition phrases. In this work, I also formulate a formal analysis for these syntactic phenomena on the basis of an OT account. The overall plan for the Hakka research conducted in this dissertation involves collecting original linguistic data from native Hakka speakers, advancing a thoughtful description of Hakka grammar, and laying an insightful schema for general syntactic patterns in Hakka. Besides, by adopting OT as the theoretical framework, this dissertation demonstrates one way of intergrating Hakka research with modern linguistic theory. |
