DOCSLIB.ORG

UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Logical and Substantive Scales in Phonology Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sp1b9w8 Author Mortensen, David Publication Date 2006 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Logical and Substantive Scales in Phonology by David Roland Mortensen B.A (Utah State University) 2000 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2003 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Committee in charge: Professor Sharon Inkelas (co-chair) Professor James A. Matisoff (co-chair) Professor Larry M. Hyman Professor Johanna Nichols Fall 2006 Abstract This study addresses two assumptions that have accompanied generative phonology from its inception, namely the binarity and phonetic grounding of features. It argues, based on both theoretical and empirical grounds, for the existence of n-ary phonological relationships that are not necessarily grounded in a phonetic dimension or parameter. It presents, further, a model labelled Structural Optimality, which combines represen- tations of this type with Optimality-Theoretic grammars. Four types of phenomena are presented as arguments for Structural Optimality: chain shifts, circle shifts (i.e. circular chain shifts), phonologically-driven ordering ef- fects in coordinate compounds, and certain dissimilatory effects in reduplication. Each of these phenomena present problems for theories that are inseparably tied to binarity, strongly committed to phonetic grounding, or both. Chain shifts have conventionally been hard to capture as a single process and have presented difficulties to output-oriented phonological models like Optimality Theory. This study raises another difficulty: phonetically grounded chain shifts may become more and more arbitrary over time without loosing their original structure. Structural Optimality presents a solution to both of these problems by treating chain shifts as traversals of scales, the essential component of which is their logical structure rather than their phonetic manifestation. This is done my invoking a novel concept: direc- tional anti-identity constraints, the class of constraints that require that elements be higher on a scale than the elements to which they correspond. 1 An even more difficult problem for earlier theories of phonology has been that of circle shifts. For Optimality Theory, especially, these have been challenging since one of the demonstrable properties of classical OT, Harmonic Ascent, “all unfaithful mappings must be markedness-reducing,” explicitly rules out such patterns. This study demonstrates that circle shifts are actually more widespread than has been traditionally believed, are as phonological in nature as other phenomena addressed by phonologists, and therefore must be engaged by phonological theory. Further, it demonstrates that the predictions made by contrast-preservation theories of circle shifts—particularly, that all circle shifts must involve neutralization—are not correct, but that directional anti- identity, as motivated by ordinary chain shifts, actually predicts the existence of circle shifts as well. That circle shifts may not involve neutralization is demonstrated by surveying the diverse set of tone circles found in dialects of Southern Min (a Chinese language). Structural Optimality analyses of circle shifts from Xiamen Chinese, A- Hmao, and Jingpho are presented, showing how this model can capture all of these— very different—patterns. The case of Jingpho is also seen to motivate general scalar anti-identity. Arguing for these many cases, this study asserts that Harmonic Ascent is not a property of natural languages. Directional anti-identity is also shown to predict the existence of another phe- nomenon, when applied to correspondence relationships across a string (rather than between input and output): the order of coordinate compounds (co-compounds), being free from syntactic requirements on sequence, can be ordered according to n-ary phono- logical criteria of the same type that produce chain shifts and circle shifts. Numerous examples of effects of this kind are presented, as are analyses couched in Structural Op- timality. The case of Hmong (Mong Leng) co-compounds is treated in particular detail, demonstrating that the ordering phenomenon in that language simultaneously argues for optimality grammars and against phonetic grounding or substantial optimization. 2 This part of the study further demonstrates how morphotactic patterns can be brought to bear in the study of phonological grammars and representations, and it demonstrates the striking parallel between two apparently unrelated phenomena: chain-shifting and phonologically-driven co-compound ordering. Finally, this study ties yet another phenomenon to the rest: echo reduplication. It shows how the same sets of constraints that are motivated by circle-shifting and co- compound ordering play a role in the “dissimilatory” effects in echo-reduplication. This is shown by looking at examples from English, Jingpho, and Eastern A-Hmao. The A- Hmao case is particularly enlightening, showing a three-way patterning in dissimilation that is easy to capture in terms of scales but more difficult to capture using traditional features. The upshot of the study is that a descriptively and explanatorily adequate theory of phonology must include representations that are neither strictly binary nor strictly grounded in phonetic parameters. It provides empirical evidence for the kinds of re- lationships posited by early structuralists on theory-internal grounds. In doing so, it frees Universal Grammar from the shifting moorings of substance and allows the the- ory of phonology to be a theory of grammar rather than a theory of motor control or psychophysics. 3 for Rahel Light to my shadows, dawn to my night. i Contents Contents ii Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Precis ................................... 3 1.1.1 Surveyofpreviouswork . 3 1.1.1.1 Phonological relationships as logical abstractions... 3 1.1.1.2 Scalarrepresentations . 5 1.1.2 StructuralOptimality:anoverview . 7 1.1.2.1 OptimalityTheory . 8 1.1.2.2 Logicalscales . 10 1.1.2.3 Scale-referringconstraints . 11 1.1.3 Empiricalmotivations. 15 1.1.3.1 Chainshiftsandcircleshifts . 15 1.1.3.2 Orderingeffects . 17 1.1.3.3 Graded dissimilation and other scalar effects in redu- plication ........................ 18 1.2 OverviewofChapters .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 19 2 Logical Scales and the Theory of Structural Optimality 21 2.1 StructuralOptimality .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 21 ii 2.2 TheDefinitionandStructureofLogicalScales . ..... 22 2.2.1 NaturalandUnnaturalScales. 28 2.2.2 LogicalScalesandRichnessoftheBase . 29 2.3 StructuralHarmonyConstraints. .. 31 2.3.1 ENDMOST ............................. 32 2.3.2 TOP ................................ 34 2.3.3 EXTREME ............................. 34 2.4 StringInternalCorrespondence . .. 35 2.4.1 Properties ofcorrespondencerelationships . ..... 39 2.5 SyntagmaticRelationalHarmonyConstraints . ..... 40 2.5.1 PLATEAU ............................. 42 2.5.2 NOPLATEAU ........................... 43 2.5.3 WAX and NOWAX ........................ 45 2.6 Input-OutputRelationalHarmonyConstraints . ...... 48 2.6.1 SAME ............................... 48 2.6.2 DIFF ................................ 49 2.6.3 HIGHER and NOHIGHER ..................... 53 2.7 AFactorialTypologyofMappingSchemas . 55 2.7.1 TheIdentityMapping. 56 2.7.2 Neutralization.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 56 2.7.3 Neutralizationwith“Bounce-Back” . 57 2.7.4 Chainshift ............................ 60 2.7.5 Ring(circularchainshift). 62 2.7.6 ComparisonofTypologicalPredictions . 66 3 Chain Shifts and Scales 68 3.1 ChainShifts:ProblemsandProspects . .. 68 iii 3.2 WesternHmongicTonalChainShifts. 71 3.2.1 DananshanHmong . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 72 3.2.1.1 OriginoftheChainShift. 74 3.2.1.2 ProblemswithanAutosegmentalAccount . 75 3.2.2 EasternA-Hmao ......................... 82 3.2.3 MashanDialects ......................... 84 3.2.3.1 Naturalness, productivity,and theproper scope of phonol- ogy........................... 90 3.3 FricativePlaceChainShiftinAcquisition . ..... 93 3.4 Conclusion ................................ 96 4 Circular Chain Shifts 98 4.1 SouthernMinToneSandhiCircles . 100 4.1.1 XiamenandMainstreamTaiwanese . .101 4.1.1.1 Adigressionon“psychologicalreality” . 103 4.1.1.2 Allomorph-selectionhypotheses . 106 4.1.1.3 Rulebasedanalyses . .108 4.1.1.4 Contrastpreservationanalyses . 110 4.1.2 Checked-syllable(rusheng)circles . 115 4.1.2.1 Dong-an ........................115 4.1.2.2 TainanandotherTaiwanesedialects . 117 4.1.2.3 Chaoyang. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..118 4.1.2.4 Chao-an ........................118 4.1.3 Chaozhou(Chaoshan) . .120 4.1.4 Yilan: acircleshiftsansneutralization . .121 4.1.5 Dongshan .............................122 4.1.5.1 AStructuralOptimalityaccount . 123 iv 4.1.5.2 Relevance for contrast-preservation theories . .129 4.1.6 The historical evolution of circle shifts in Southern Min. .130 4.1.6.1 Firstprinciples . .130 4.1.6.2 XiamenandMainstreamTaiwanese . 133 4.1.6.3 Dongshan. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..135 4.2 A-HmaoBounce-backEffects . .136 4.2.1 WesternA-Hmao . .137 4.2.2 EasternA-Hmao . .. .. .. .. .. .. ..144 4.3 JingphoBounce-backEffect . .152 4.3.1 Withinitialcheckedsyllables. 153 4.3.2 Withinitialsmoothsyllables . .156 4.4 Circle Shifts and Bounce-back effects as counter-examples
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Inflectional Morphology in Optimality Theory
    Inflectional Morphology in Optimality Theory A Dissertation Presented by Zheng Xu to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Stony Brook University August 2007 Copyright by Zheng Xu August 2007 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Zheng Xu We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation Mark Aronoff, Professor of Linguistics Robert D. Hoberman, Professor of Linguistics Alice C. Harris, Professor of Linguistics James P. Blevins, Assistant Director of Research Research Center for English and Applied Linguistics University of Cambridge This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Lawrence Martin Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation Inflectional Morphology in Optimality Theory by Zheng Xu Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Stony Brook University 2007 This dissertation proposes an inferential-realizational model of inflectional morphology (Matthews 1972, Zwicky 1985, Anderson 1992, Aronoff 1994, Stump 2001) within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). Following Russell 1995, Yip 1998, Hyman 2003, MacBride 2004, I assume that the phonological information of inflectional affixes is introduced through realization constraints (RC) which associate abstract morphosyntactic or semantic feature values with phonological forms. I propose that rankings of realization constraints conform to the specificity condition, i.e. a constraint realizing a more specific morphosyntactic feature value set outranks a less specific realization constraint. I also propose that the unmarked situation in which one feature value is realized by one form (Wurzel 1989) is encoded in two universal and violable markedness constraints, *FEATURE SPLIT which bans the realization of a feature value by more than one form and *FEATURE FUSION which bans a form realizing more than one feature value.
    [Show full text]
  • An Examination of Oral Articulation of Vowel Nasality in the Light of the Independent Effects of Nasalization on Vowel Quality
    DOI: 10.17469/O2104AISV000002 CHRISTOPHER CARIGNAN An examination of oral articulation of vowel nasality in the light of the independent effects of nasalization on vowel quality In this paper, a summary is given of an experimental technique to address a known issue in research on the independent effects of nasalization on vowel acoustics: given that the separate transfer functions associated with the oral and nasal cavities are merged in the acoustic signal, the task of teasing apart the respective effects of the two cavities seems to be an intractable problem. The results obtained from the method reveal that the independent effects of nasal- ization on the acoustic vowel space are: F1-raising for high vowels, F1-lowering for non-high vowels, and F2-lowering for non-front vowels. The results from previous articulatory research performed by the author on the production of vowel nasality in French, Hindi, and English are discussed in the light of these independent effects of nasalization on vowel quality. Keywords: vowel nasality, vowel quality, articulation, acoustics, sound change. 1. Introduction A traditional characterization of vowel nasality adopts a seemingly binary classification of vowel sounds based on the relative height of the velum: nasal vowels are produced with a low velum position (and, thus, air radiation from both the oral and nasal cavities), where- as oral vowels are produced with a high velum position (and, thus, air radiation from the oral cavity alone). While it is unquestionably true that nasal vowels are produced with a lowered velum, this traditional characterization carries an implicit assumption about the state of the oral cavity for the production of a nasal vowel, i.e., that the nasal vowel maintains the same articulatory characteristics as its non-nasal counterpart in all aspects except for the height of the velum.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to Optimality Theory
    9781405151368_4_001.qxd 11/30/07 5:01 PM Page 1 1 An Introduction to Optimality Theory 1.1 How OT Began Around 1990, Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky began collaborating on a new theory of human language. This collaboration led in fairly short order to a book-length manuscript, Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Photocopies of the manuscript were widely distributed and had a terrific impact on the field of linguistics, even though it wasn’t formally published until more than a decade later (as Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004). OT had and continues to have its greatest effect on phonology, but it has also led to important work in syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and other areas. OT belongs on anyone’s list of the top three developments in the history of generative grammar. One of Prince and Smolensky’s goals for OT was to solve a long- standing problem in phonology. Phonological theory in the tradition of Chomsky and Halle’s (1968) The Sound Pattern of English (SPE) was based on rewrite rules. The rewrite rule A → B/C___D describes an input configuration CAD and an A → B transformation that applies to it. Rewrite rules can describe lots of phenomena, but they do a poor job of explaining how phonological systems fit together. (For a brief explanation of SPE’s main assumptions, see the boxed text at the end of this section.) To illustrate, we’ll look at some data from Yawelmani, a nearly extinct dialect of the California Penutian language Yokuts (Newman 1944).1 In this language, syllables cannot be bigger than CVC (consonant- vowel-consonant).
    [Show full text]
  • Phonetically Driven Phonology: the Role of Optimality Theory and Inductive Grounding1
    Phonetically Driven Phonology: The Role of Optimality Theory and Inductive Grounding1 Bruce P. Hayes UCLA Final version: August 1997 Written for the proceedings volume of the 1996 Milwaukee Conference on Formalism and Functionalism in Linguistics Abstract Functionalist phonetic literature has shown how the phonologies of human languages are arranged to facilitate ease of articulation and perception. The explanatory force of phonological theory is greatly increased if it can directly access these research results. There are two formal mechanisms that together can facilitate the link-up of formal to functional work. As others have noted, Optimality Theory, with its emphasis on directly incorporating principles of markedness, can serve as part of the bridge. Another mechanism is proposed here: an algorithm for inductive grounding permits the language learner to access the knowledge gained from experience in articulation and perception, and form from it the appropriate set of formal phonological constraints. 1 I would like to thank Marco Baroni, Patricia Keating, Donca Steriade, and members of talk audiences at MIT, Arizona, Tilburg, Utrecht, Cornell, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, and the Formalism/Functionalism conference for helpful input in the preparation of this paper. Phonetically-Driven Phonology p. 2 1. Phonological Functionalism The difference between formalist and functionalist approaches in linguistics has taken different forms in different areas. For phonology, and particularly for the study of fully- productive sound patterns, the functionalist approach has traditionally been phonetic in character. For some time, work in the phonetic literature, such as Ohala (1974, 1978, 1981, 1983), Ohala and OHALA (1993), Liljencrants and Lindblom (1972), Lindblom (1983, 1990), and Westbury and Keating (1986), has argued that the sound patterns of languages are effectively arranged to facilitate ease of articulation and distinctness of contrasting forms in perception.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Anatomy of a Chain Shift1 DANIEL A
    J. Linguistics, Page 1 of 25. f Cambridge University Press 2010 doi:10.1017/S0022226710000368 On the anatomy of a chain shift1 DANIEL A. DINNSEN, CHRISTOPHER R. GREEN, JUDITH A. GIERUT & MICHELE L. MORRISETTE Indiana University (Received 4 September 2009; revised 28 April 2010) Phonological chain shifts have been the focus of many theoretical, developmental, and clinical concerns. This paper considers an overlooked property of the problem by focusing on the typological properties of the widely attested ‘s>h>f’ chain shift involving the processes of Labialization and Dentalization in early phonological development. Findings are reported from a cross-sectional study of 234 children (ages 3 years; 0 months–7;9) with functional (nonorganic) phonological delays. The results reveal some unexpected gaps in the predicted interactions of these processes and are brought to bear on the evaluation of recent optimality theoretic proposals for the characterization of phonological interactions. A developmental modification to the theory is proposed that has the desired effect of precluding certain early-stage grammars. The proposal is further evaluated against the facts of another widely cited developmental chain shift known as the ‘puzzle>puddle>pickle’ problem (Smith 1973). 1. I NTRODUCTION A common phenomenon in both first- and second-language acquisition and in fully-developed languages is for phonological processes to participate in a chain shift (e.g. Moreton & Smolensky 2002, Jesney 2005, Dinnsen 2008b). Chain shifts typically involve two phonological processes that interact in such a way that they result in an opaque generalization (i.e. one that is not surface-true). This phenomenon has generated much discussion and contro- versy in the theoretical, developmental, and clinical literature over the years and has raised questions about the very nature of chain shifts.
    [Show full text]
  • Chain Shifts in First Language Acquisition
    CHAIN SHIFTS IN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION MASTER’S THESIS BY FRANSIEN WALTON MASTER’S PROGRAMME TAAL, MENS EN MAATSCHAPPIJ TAALWETENSCHAP UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT STUDENT NUMBER 0419273 SUPERVISOR PROF. DR. RENÉ KAGER SECOND READER PROF. DR. WIM ZONNEVELD 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE 5 1. INTRODUCTION 7 2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH 14 2.1 EARLY GENERATIVE GRAMMAR 15 2.1.1 SMITH (1973) 17 2.1.2 MACKEN (1980) 19 2.2 OPTIMALITY THEORY 21 2.2.1 INTRODUCTION TO OPTIMALITY THEORY 21 2.2.2 CHAIN SHIFTS IN OPTIMALITY THEORY 26 2.2.3 LOCAL CONSTRAINT CONJUNCTION 28 2.2.4 FAITHFULNESS TO INPUT PROMINENCE 39 2.2.5 OPTIMALITY THEORY WITH CANDIDATE CHAINS 52 2.2.6 UNDERSPECIFIED UNDERLYING REPRESENTATIONS 58 2.3 CONCLUSION 62 3. A NEW PROPOSAL 65 3.1 INDEPENDENT PROCESSES 68 3.2 ARTICULATORY DIFFICULTIES 70 3.3 UNDERLYING REPRESENTATIONS 74 3.4 MISPERCEPTION 79 3.5 PREDICTIONS REVISITED 83 3.6 CONCLUSION 86 4. DISCUSSION 88 5. CONCLUSION 103 REFERENCES 105 3 4 PREFACE The idea for this thesis originated in the course Phonological Acquisition taught by René Kager. I read the article On the characterization of a chain shift in normal and delayed phonological acquisition by Daniel Dinnsen and Jessica Barlow (1998) and was intrigued by the phenomenon. After I started reading more on the subject, I became increasingly unhappy with the proposed analyses in the literature and decided to dive deeper into the matter. The result is this thesis. I would like to thank René for his useful comments, critical questions and positive feedback.
    [Show full text]
  • Speakers Treat Transparent and Opaque Alternation Patterns Differently — Evidence from Chinese Tone Sandhi*
    This is a printout of the final PDF file and has been approved by me, the author. Any mistakes in this printout will not be fixed by the publisher. Here is my signature and the date 06/10/2018 Speakers Treat Transparent and Opaque Alternation Patterns Differently — Evidence from Chinese Tone Sandhi* Jie Zhang 1. Introduction 1.1 Opacity The study of opacity has had a long tradition in generative phonology. Kiparsky (1973: p.79) defined two types of opacity for a phonological rule, as in (1). The first type is also known as underapplication opacity, and the opaque rule is non-surface-true; the second type is also known as overapplication opacity, and the opaque rule is non-surface-apparent (e.g., Bakovic 2007). (1) Opacity: A phonological rule P of the form A → B / C __ D is opaque if there are surface structures with any of the following characteristics: (a) Instance of A in the environment C __ D; (b) Instance of B derived by P in environments other than C __ D. In the rule-based framework, opacity can generally be derived by ordering the opaque rule before another rule that could either set up or destroy the application of the opaque rule (but see Bakovic 2007, 2011, who advocates the decoupling of opacity and rule ordering). In a surface-oriented theory like Optimality Theory (OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004), however, opacity poses significant challenges. Without modification to the theory, neither underapplication nor overapplication opacity can be straightforwardly derived. A number of general solutions for opacity have been proposed within OT, including the Sympathy Theory (McCarthy 1999), Stratal OT (Kiparsky 2000, Nazarov and Pater 2017), OT with Candidate Chains (OT-CC; McCarthy 2007), and Serial Markedness Reduction (Jarosz 2014, 2016).
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Unified Theory of Chain Shifting
    OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 04/29/12, NEWGEN !"#$%&' () TOWARD A UNIFIED THEORY OF CHAIN SHIFTING *#'+, -. ./,0/, !. I"#$%&'(#)%" Chain shifts play a major role in understanding the phonological history of English—from the prehistoric chain shift of Grimm’s Law that separates the Germanic languages from the rest of Indo-European, to the Great Vowel Shift that is often taken to define the boundary between Middle English and Early Modern English, to the ongoing chain shifts in Present-Day English that are used to estab- lish the geographical boundaries between dialect regions. A chain shift may be defined as a set of phonetic changes affecting a group of phonemes so that as one phoneme moves in phonetic space, another phoneme moves toward the phonetic position the first is abandoning; a third may move toward the original position of the second, and (perhaps) so on. Martinet (12(3) introduced the argument that chain shifts are caused by a need for phonemes to maintain margins of security between each other—so if a phoneme has more phonetic space on one side of it than on others, random phonetic variation will cause it to move toward the free space but not back toward the margins of security of phonemes on the other side. Labov (3414: chapter 5) gives a lucid exposition of the cognitive and phonetic argu- ments underlying this account of chain shifting. Despite their value as a descriptive device for the history of English, however, the ontological status of chain shifts themselves is a matter of some doubt. Is a 559_Nevalainen_Ch58.indd9_Nevalainen_Ch58.indd
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Optimality Theory? John J
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series Linguistics January 2007 What is Optimality Theory? John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs Part of the Morphology Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons, and the Phonetics and Phonology Commons Recommended Citation McCarthy, John J., "What is Optimality Theory?" (2007). Language and Linguistics Compass. 93. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs/93 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 What is Optimality Theory?1 John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts Amherst Abstract. Optimality Theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. This article surveys the motivations for OT, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions for further reading. 1. Introduction In 1991, Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky began presenting their work on a new approach to language. By 1993, this new approach had a name — Optimality Theory — and it became known through their widely-circulated manuscript Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar (hereafter, Prince and Smolensky (2004)). The impact of this work on the field of phonology was extensive and immediate; since 1993, it has also stimulated important research in syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and other areas.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Constraints in Phonological Acquisition
    1 Introduction: constraints in phonological acquisition René Kager, Joe Paten and Wim Zonneveld This volume presents ten studies in phonological first languageacquisition, an area of research that has become one of fast-growing importance in recent years. The reason for this is not just the fruitfulness and linguistic interest of this type of study per se: it is also thecase that the more we come to know about phonological development, by the analysis of growingnumbers of data collections and increasingly sophisticated experiments, themore the field has complied with the notion that acquisition research liesat the heart of the modern study of language. One of the aims of this introductionis to illustrate and discuss these developments. In line with them, thepast decade in phonology in particular has witnessed an upswell of productiveinteraction between empirical acquisition research and theory development. With thearrival and rise of constraint-based models, in particular Prince and Smolensky's(1993) Optimality Theory, phonological theory now providesa framework that meets the desiderata expressed more than two decadesago by Lise Menn (1980: 35-36), who is also a contributor to this volume: () ... The child'slonguetiedness',that overwhelming reality which Stampe and Jakobson both tried to capture with their respective formal structures, could be handled more felicitously if one represented the heavy articulatory limitations of the child by the formal device of output constraints I...1The child's gradual mastery of articulation then is formalized as a relaxation of those constraints. The rapid emergence of acquisition studies within OptimalityTheory reflects the general suitability of constraints for the formalisation ofdevelopmental limitations, as well as the usefulness of constraint ranking for expressingthe relaxation of these limitations.
    [Show full text]
  • Complete Paper
    The Scope of Stop Weakening in Argentine Spanish Laura Colantoni and Irina Marinescu University of Toronto 1. Approaches to weakening or lenition Recent experimental studies have documented the weakening of both voiceless (e.g. Lewis, 2000: 2001) and voiced Spanish stops in intervocalic position (e.g. Cole, Hualde & Iskarous, 1999; Ortega- Llebaria, 2004). In addition, synchronic and diachronic studies have repeatedly proposed the existence of a correlation between weakening of voiced and voiceless stops (e.g. Lloyd, 1993). However, very few studies have systematically analyzed both weakening processes in the same variety (Lavoie, 2001), and even fewer have presented experimental evidence demonstrating the existence of such a correlation. In this paper, we analyze the status of both processes in Argentine Spanish in order to motivate hypotheses that would account for diachronic changes in Spanish as well as in other Romance languages. In particular, we evaluate three competing approaches to lenition. The first approach, henceforth Hypothesis A, predicts a positive correlation between an increasing rate of approximantization and deletion of voiced stops and increasing voicing of voiceless stops across places of articulation (e.g. Martinet, 1952; Lloyd, 1993; Wireback, 1997). This approach, which is basically diachronic in nature, sees lenition as a stage towards deletion. The second approach, or the effort-based hypothesis – Hypothesis B -, (Kirchner, 2004; Blevins, 2004) analyzes lenition as effort reduction. As such lenition involves a decrease in the degree of constriction of a given gesture as well as a decrease in duration. Thus, this approach predicts that more effortful gestures should lenite more than less effortful ones, and that the degree of lenition should be affected by the vocalic context.
    [Show full text]