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Optimality Theory This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank Optimality Theory This is an introduction to Optimality Theory, the central idea of which is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts be- tween competing constraints. A surface form is ‘optimal’ if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of constraints, taking into account their hierarchical ranking. Languages differ in the ranking of con- straints; and any violations must be minimal. The book does not limit its empirical scope to phonological phenomena, but also contains chapters on the learnability of OT grammars; OT’s implications for syntax; and other issues such as opacity. It also reviews in detail a selection of the considerable research output which OT has already produced. Exercises accompany chapters 1–7, and there are sections on further reading. Optimality Theory will be welcomed by any lin- guist with a basic knowledge of derivational Generative Phonology. RENÉ KAGER teaches linguistics at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS General editors: s. r. anderson, j. bresnan, b. comrie, w. dressler, c. ewen, r. huddleston, r. lass, d. lightfoot, j. lyons, p. h. matthews, r. posner, s. romaine, n. v. smith, n. vincent OPTIMALITY THEORY In this series p. h. matthews Morphology Second edition b. comrie Aspect r. m. kempson Semantic Theory t. bynon Historical Linguistics j. allwood, l.-g. anderson and ö . dahl Logic in Linguistics d. b. fry The Physics of Speech r. a. hudson Sociolinguistics Second edition a. j. elliott Child Language p. h. matthews Syntax a. radford Transformational Syntax l. bauer English Word-Formation s. c. levinson Pragmatics g. brown and g. yule Discourse Analysis r. huddleston Introduction to the Grammar of English r. lass Phonology b. comrie Tense w. klein Second Language Acquisition a. j. woods, p. fletcher and a. hughes Statistics in Language Studies d. a. cruse Lexical Semantics f. r. palmer Mood and Modality a. radford Transformational Grammar m. garman Psycholinguistics w. croft Typology and Universals g. g. corbett Gender h. j. giegerich English Phonology r. cann Formal Semantics p. j. hopper and e. c. traugott Grammaticalization j. laver Principles of Phonetics f. r. palmer Grammatical Roles and Relations b. blake Case m. a. jones Foundations of French Syntax a. radford Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: a Minimalist Approach r. d. van valin, jr. and r. j. lapolla Syntax: Structure, Meaning Sand Function a. duranti Linguistic Anthropology a. cruttenden Intonation Second edition j. k. chambers and peter trudgill Dialectology Second edition c. lyons Definiteness r. kager Optimality Theory OPTIMALITY THEORY rené kager The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 2004 First published in printed format 1999 ISBN 0-511-03860-7 eBook (Adobe Reader) ISBN 0-521-58019-6 hardback ISBN 0-521-58980-0 paperback CONTENTS Prefacepagexi 1Conflictsingrammars1 1.1Introduction:goalsoflinguistictheory1 1.2BasicconceptsofOT3 1.3Examplesofconstraintinteraction14 1.4ThearchitectureofanOTgrammar18 1.5Interactionsofmarkednessandfaithfulness27 1.6LexiconOptimization32 1.7Afactorialtypologyofmarkednessandfaithfulness34 1.8Ondefiningsegmentinventories43 1.9Conclusion47 2Thetypologyofstructuralchanges52 2.1Introduction52 2.2Nasalsubstitutionandrelatedeffects59 2.3Thetypologyof*Nteffects78 2.4 Conspiracies of nasal substitution and otherprocesses83 2.5Conclusion:acomparisonwithrule-basedtheory86 3Syllablestructureandeconomy91 3.1Introduction91 3.2Thebasicsyllabletypology92 3.3Epenthesisandtheconflictofwell-formednessand faithfulness98 3.4GeneralizedAlignment117 3.5Thequalityofepentheticsegments124 3.6Codaconditions130 3.7Conclusion139 vii Contents 4Metricalstructureandparallelism142 4.1Introduction142 4.2Wordstress:generalbackground143 4.3Case-study:rhythmiclengtheninginHixkaryana148 4.4Asetofmetricalconstraints161 4.5 Case-study: rhythmic syncope in SoutheasternTepehuan177 4.6Conclusions189 5Correspondenceinreduplication194 5.1Introduction194 5.2Reduplicativeidentity:theconstraints201 5.3Fromclassicaltemplatestogeneralizedtemplates216 5.4Fromcircumscriptiontoalignment223 5.5 ‘Classical’ versus OT-based prosodic morphology: conclusions229 5.6Overapplicationandunderapplicationinreduplication230 5.7SummaryofCorrespondenceTheory248 6Output-to-outputcorrespondence257 6.1Introduction257 6.2Identityeffectsintruncation259 6.3Identityeffectsinstem-basedaffixation273 6.4Thecycleversusbase-identity277 6.5Output-to-outputcorrespondence:conclusions293 7LearningOTgrammars296 7.1Introduction296 7.2Learningconstraintrankings297 7.3LearningthePintupigrammarofstress300 7.4Thelearningalgorithm:discussion321 7.5Learningalternationsandinputrepresentations324 8Extensionstosyntax341 8.1Introduction341 8.2OTandsyntax341 8.3 The structure of extended verbal projections inEnglish353 8.4Typologicalconsequences366 8.5Conclusions369 viii Contents 9Residualissues372 9.1Introduction372 9.2Opacity372 9.3Absoluteungrammaticality400 9.4Freevariation404 9.5Positionalfaithfulness407 9.6UnderlyingRepresentationsversusallomorphy413 9.7Conclusion:futureperspectives420 References425 Indexoflanguages445 Indexofsubjects447 Indexofconstraints451 ix PREFACE This book presents an introduction to Optimality Theory, a grammatical framework of recent origin (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993a, b). The central idea of Optimality Theory (OT) is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing demands or constraints. A surface form is ‘optimal’ in the sense that it incurs the least serious violations of a set of violable constraints, ranked in a language-specific hierarchy. Constraints are uni- versal, and directly encode markedness statements and principles enforcing the preservation of contrasts. Languages differ in the ranking of constraints, giving priorities to some constraints over others. Such rankings are based on ‘strict’ domina- tion: if one constraint outranks another, the higher-ranked constraint has priority, regardless of violations of the lower-ranked one. However, such violation must be minimal, which predicts the economy property of grammatical processes. OT’s basic assumptions and the architecture of OT grammars will be dealt with in chapters 1 and 2. Optimality Theory is a development of Generative Grammar, a theory sharing its focus on formal description and quest for universal principles, on the basis of empirical research of linguistic typology and (first) language acquisition. However, OT radically differs from earlier generative models in various ways. To accommodate cross-linguistic variation within a theory of Universal Grammar, OT assumes that universal constraints are violable, while earlier models assumed ‘parametric’ variation of inviolate principles. Moreover, OT is surface-based in the sense that well-formedness constraints evaluate surface forms only – no struc- tural conditions are placed on lexical forms. Earlier models had assumed Morph- eme Structure Constraints, resulting in the duplication of static and dynamic rules in phonotactics. In contrast, OT entirely abandons the notion of rewrite rule, dissociating ‘triggers’ and ‘repairs’. This serves to explain conspiracies: multiple processes triggered by a single output-oriented goal. Finally, OT also eliminates derivations, replacing these by parallelism: all constraints pertaining to some type of structure are evaluated within a single hierarchy. The comparison of OT and xi Preface its generative ancestors will be the topic of chapter 2, although the issue will reoccur in later chapters (specifically 4, 5, and 9). Optimality Theory is not a theory of representations, but a theory of inter- actions of grammatical principles. More accurately, the issue of representations is orthogonal to that of constraint interaction. Therefore the divergence from earlier generative models is less clear-cut in this respect. Most OT literature on phono- logy, for example, assumes the representational alphabet of non-linear (metrical and autosegmental) phonology. In this book, the emphasis will be on prosodic phenomena, partly reflecting a tendency in the field, and partly the research inter- ests of the author. Some of OT’s most striking results have been reached in the domain of prosodically governed phenomena, such as syllable-dependent epenth- esis (chapter 3), interactions of syllable weight and metrical structure (chapter 4), and prosodic targets in reduplication (chapter 5). However, our discussion of these phenomena serves to highlight results of OT that are relevant beyond prosody. To support this point, a range of segmental phenomena will be analysed throughout the book. Finally, OT has consequences for representational issues which are more closely connected with grammatical interactions, in particular for featural under- specification, as will be shown in chapters 1, 3, and 9. Optimality Theory is a general theory of grammar, rather than one of phono- logy. Therefore this book is not limited in its empirical scope to phonological phenomena, but it also contains chapters on the learnability of OT grammars (chapter 7) and extensions to syntax (chapter 8). Finally, chapter 9
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