The basic assumptions of this constraintbased theory as a general model of grammar are first outlined, with formal notation being defined and illustrated. Although much of the interest in ot has been associated with its use in phonology the area to which ot was first applied, the theory is also applicable to other subfields of. Mccarthy university of massachusetts amherst abstract. This is hard to say because people add their own obscure proposals all the time. Generating interlanguage syllabification in optimality theory.
As the theory of representations in syntax has ramified, the theory of operations has dwindled in content, even to triviality and, for some, nonexistence. This is a preprint version of an article to appear in. The routledge handbook of phonological theory 1st edition sj ha. Introduction the last five or six years have seen a substantial change in the nature of research into phonological theory. The central role of the syllable in phonology in the seventies, several phonologists, such as vennemann 1974, hooper 1976,and kahn 1976,proposed including the syllable as a prosodic unit in generative phonological theory. Linguistic and cognitive explanation in optimality theory.
This article surveys the motivations for ot, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. A main thing the optimality theory explains with the previous theories did not, is how different phonological rules which do not seem to have something in common are actually a part of a conspiracy which is meant to serve a single purpose the prevention of a form the language phonology does not allow etc. This learning occurs before infants can utter words or apprehend most phonological. Optimality theory was introduced in the 1990s by linguists alan prince and paul smolensky optimality theory. For example, early generative phonology defines grammars in terms of serial derivation a sequence of procedural steps, each a phonological rule. In class we mainly approached phonology from a rulebased perspective, and were breifly told of ots constraintbased approach in passing.
Barbara hancinbhatt university of illinois at urbanachampaign. Really didnt go much into theory, which bummed me out, so i did some reading on my own. It presents a view of the phonology of english, and has been very influential in both the field of phonology and in the analysis of the english language. In generative phonological theory, and particularly in derivational phonology, output representations are standardly assumed not to contain abstract material like. Constraint interaction in generative grammar compiles the most important readings about optimality theory in phonology from some of the most. A function called gen maps each lexical form into all possible output candidates. It was not clear from early work in optimality theory how the theory could attack the rich range of phenomena now found in segmental alterations. The book is based on typological, crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental evidence from over 200 children.
The first four chapters of that book, included in the present volume. Chomsky and halle present a view of phonology as a linguistic subsystem. Bradley, uc davis november 5, 20 abstract this article surveys research in spanish phonology from the perspective of optimality theory, a formal linguistic framework based on ranked and violable constraints. The relevance of the syllable for linguistic theory has increased ever since. Focusing on the phonologies of children with functional nonorganic speech disorders, this volume reports the latest findings in optimality theory, phonological acquisition and disorders. I took my first phonology course as an undergrad this past semester, and found it really fascinating. A reader is a collection of readings on this important new theory by leading figures in the field, including a lengthy excerpt from prince and smolenskys neverbeforepublished optimality theory. Lecture notes introduction to phonology linguistics.
Section 2 gives an example of syntax within the theory. As might be expected a priori under a constraintbased approach, these researchers. Ot henceforth has experimented a spectacular development in the last decade, exerting. Syllabus introduction to phonology linguistics and.
The innovation of optimality theory ot is to view grammars as a set of ranked violable constraints. However, there is now a body of work that concentrates on working out the details of featural phonology with ot, demonstrating that the theory allows superior explanations of the typological. I will argue that loanword phonology in cantonese does not exist as a separate component of the grammar and that the differences between english language source forms and their cantonese equivalents can be understood as the result of subjecting nonnative inputs to the constraints that define wellformed cantonese words. Spanishenglish and portugueseenglish interlanguage phonology. Optimality theory and african language phonology cascadilla. Generative theory in that input is mapped onto output. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions. Davies taught me the dynamism of human languages that is, how messy languages are, and gave me a valuable lesson that no linguistic theory is viable if we overlook the data.
For our purposes, it will be convenient to classify phonological changes under two headings, roughly corresponding to the. Ot provides new angles on longstanding diachronic questions, whilst historical data and models of change bear directly on the assessment of ot. Optimality theory ot is a linguistic model originally proposed by the linguists alan prince and paul smolensky in 1993. Positional faithfulness, constraint conjunction, global comparison.
Its goals are to introduce the major research questions, results, and analytic techniques in the. Im guessing our department teaches a more substancefree approach in the higherlevel courses, based on the papers ive read by faculty. For each chapter, mccarthy adds brief introductory notes and a list of study and. Generating interlanguage syllabification in optimality theory acl. This course is the first half of a yearlong introduction to the p side of the grammar. Optimality theory in phonology california institute of.
Optimality theory ot, proposed by prince and smolensky 1993 and mccarthy and prince 1993, also takes the syllable on board. Chapter 1 introduction sj hannahs and anna bosch chapter 2 optimality theory. In linguistics, optimality theory is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the optimal satisfaction of conflicting constraints. What are the advantages disadvantages of a rulebased. Linear or nonlinear linearis a theory of the sound structure of human languges.
A surface form is optimal if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of constraints, taking into account their hierarchical ranking. What are the advantages disadvantages of a rulebased method of phonological analysis over competing methods such as optimality theory. Optimality theory in phonology alan prince and paul smolensky 1. Ot differs from other approaches to phonological analysis, such as autosegmental phonology and linear phonology spe, which typically use. That this point still strongly separates structural and functionalist theories is evidenced by the recent emergence of optimality theory, which. A short treatise of optimality theory goethe university frankfurt. The sound pattern of english frequently referred to as spe is a 1968 work on phonology a branch of linguistics by noam chomsky and morris halle. Ot models grammars as systems that provide mappings from inputs to outputs. Optimality theory, phonological acquisition and disorders. The early stages abstract recent experimental work indicates that by the age of ten months, infants have already learned a great deal about the phonotactics legal sounds and sound sequences of their language. The prevailing nonsequential approach to phonology, the optimality theory, ot, is based not on rewrite rules but on constraints. Max every input segment must have an output correspondent. Compiles the most important readings about optimality theory in phonology from some of the most prominent researchers.
Though originally developed from generative phonology, the principles of optimality theory have also been applied in studies of syntax, morphology, pragmatics, language change, and other areas. Remarks on optimality theory and language change 3 1996 and hutton 1996, and among the first dissertations were those by gess 1996, on latin to old french and holt 1997, on latin to hispanoromance. Rubach 2003 among others, the phonological grammar consists of an. This is a preprint version of an article to appear in language and linguistics compass optimality theory and spanish phonology travis g. Optimality theory history it is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the interaction between conflicting constraints. Candidate d, however is harmonically bounded by a, and by c. Nonparametric learning of phonological constraints in.
In the early 1990s, a much more radical challenge to the classical model was presented by the development of optimality theory ot, a view of phonology based on a system of ranked, violable constraints on surface shape as opposed to a system of ordered rules deriving the phonetics from an underlying phonological. Optimality theory ot shifts the focus of linguistic discovery from rules and derivations to constraints and rankings. Concepts unique to the theory, including emergence of the unmarked, are also described. Therefore, d cannot be the optimal candidate under any ranking of just these three constraints, though it could be optimal with a larger. In linguistics, optimality theory frequently abbreviated ot. What does optimality theory explain that rulebased.
Pdf the syllable in optimality theory researchgate. It is a theory that has been most widely accepted in the realm of phonology, but has implications for all areas of linguistics. Cantonese loanword phonology and optimality theory. Mccarthy university of texas at austin and university of massachusetts, amherst glow newsletter 8, february 1982 0. These constraints are assumed to be universal, and the difference between child phonology and adult phonology, and between the grammars of different languages, now lies in differences in the ranking of the constraints. A reader is a collection of readings on this important new theory by leading figures in the field, including a lengthy excerpt from prince and smolenskys never. Section 3 examines possible implications of optimality theory for studies of language processing, discussing work on the computability of optimality theoretic grammars, as well as some conceptual similarities between optimality theory and work in connectionism and dynamical systems. The rise of optimality theory ot shifted attention from theories of representations to a constraintsbased theory of phonological processes and their interactions. These constraints are used in optimality theory, such as nocoda. Optimality theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. Although much of the interest in ot has been associated with its use in phonology the area to which ot was first applied, the theory is also applicable to other.
In this weeks episode, we take a look at optimality theory. Constraint interaction in generative grammar, 19932004. This is an introduction to optimality theory, whose central idea is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. Formal comparison and synthesis russell james norton a thesis submitted for the degree of doctor of philosophy. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. On the nature of the input in optimality theory uni leipzig. Constraints are universal but each language may rank them differently. The syllable in optimality theory semantic scholar. Nicholas rolle lectures at uc berkeley on optimality theory in phonology ling 115 2016. Optimality theory in phonology is a textbook for an advancedlevel phonology course that contains excerpts from 33 important articles and manuscripts on optimality theory ot.
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