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 is a preprint version of an article to appear in. Positional faithfulness, constraint conjunction, global comparison. The book is based on typological, crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental evidence from over 200 children. In linguistics, optimality theory frequently abbreviated ot. A function called gen maps each lexical form into all possible output candidates. 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. The innovation of optimality theory ot is to view grammars as a set of ranked violable constraints. 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. Rubach 2003 among others, the phonological grammar consists of an. I took my first phonology course as an undergrad this past semester, and found it really fascinating.
Compiles the most important readings about optimality theory in phonology from some of the most prominent researchers. Nonparametric learning of phonological constraints in. Optimality theory and african language phonology cascadilla. As might be expected a priori under a constraintbased approach, these researchers.
Really didnt go much into theory, which bummed me out, so i did some reading on my own. 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. In this weeks episode, we take a look at optimality theory. 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. Optimality theory history it is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the interaction between conflicting constraints. Linguistic and cognitive explanation in optimality theory.
Pdf the syllable in optimality theory researchgate. 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. Focusing on the phonologies of children with functional nonorganic speech disorders, this volume reports the latest findings in optimality theory, phonological acquisition and disorders. 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. On the nature of the input in optimality theory uni leipzig.
Ot provides new angles on longstanding diachronic questions, whilst historical data and models of change bear directly on the assessment of ot. Chomsky and halle present a view of phonology as a linguistic subsystem. For example, early generative phonology defines grammars in terms of serial derivation a sequence of procedural steps, each a phonological rule. Its goals are to introduce the major research questions, results, and analytic techniques in the. That this point still strongly separates structural and functionalist theories is evidenced by the recent emergence of optimality theory, which.
A surface form is optimal if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of constraints, taking into account their hierarchical ranking. Lecture notes introduction to phonology linguistics. 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. In linguistics, optimality theory is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the optimal satisfaction of conflicting constraints. Linear or nonlinear linearis a theory of the sound structure of human languges.
Cantonese loanword phonology and optimality theory. 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. 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. The basic assumptions of this constraintbased theory as a general model of grammar are first outlined, with formal notation being defined and illustrated. This course is the first half of a yearlong introduction to the p side of the grammar. 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. What are the advantages disadvantages of a rulebased. Mccarthy university of texas at austin and university of massachusetts, amherst glow newsletter 8, february 1982 0. 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. Max every input segment must have an output correspondent.
Optimality theory ot, proposed by prince and smolensky 1993 and mccarthy and prince 1993, also takes the syllable on board. Spanishenglish and portugueseenglish interlanguage phonology. Formal comparison and synthesis russell james norton a thesis submitted for the degree of doctor of philosophy. As the theory of representations in syntax has ramified, the theory of operations has dwindled in content, even to triviality and, for some, nonexistence. Optimality theory in phonology california institute of. 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. This change has been marked by the development of several new. This learning occurs before infants can utter words or apprehend most phonological. Therefore, d cannot be the optimal candidate under any ranking of just these three constraints, though it could be optimal with a larger.
Optimality theory in phonology alan prince and paul smolensky 1. Syllabus introduction to phonology linguistics and. 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. This article surveys the motivations for ot, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. Candidate d, however is harmonically bounded by a, and by c. Generative theory in that input is mapped onto output. Ot differs from other approaches to phonological analysis, such as autosegmental phonology and linear phonology spe, which typically use. Constraint interaction in generative grammar, 19932004. The routledge handbook of phonological theory 1st edition sj ha.
For each chapter, mccarthy adds brief introductory notes and a list of study and. The relevance of the syllable for linguistic theory has increased ever since. Generating interlanguage syllabification in optimality theory. Section 2 gives an example of syntax within the theory. 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. These constraints are used in optimality theory, such as nocoda. This is a preprint version of an article to appear in language and linguistics compass optimality theory and spanish phonology travis g. Optimality theory ot shifts the focus of linguistic discovery from rules and derivations to constraints and rankings. 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. How many phonological constraints are there in optimality. Ot models grammars as systems that provide mappings from inputs to outputs. 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. 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. Concepts unique to the theory, including emergence of the unmarked, are also described.
Optimality theory was introduced in the 1990s by linguists alan prince and paul smolensky optimality theory. In generative phonological theory, and particularly in derivational phonology, output representations are standardly assumed not to contain abstract material like. Optimality theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. The first four chapters of that book, included in the present volume.
For our purposes, it will be convenient to classify phonological changes under two headings, roughly corresponding to the. Generating interlanguage syllabification in optimality theory acl. Constraints are universal but each language may rank them differently. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions. A short treatise of optimality theory goethe university frankfurt. What does optimality theory explain that rulebased. This is an introduction to optimality theory, whose central idea is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. What are the advantages disadvantages of a rulebased method of phonological analysis over competing methods such as optimality theory. Ot henceforth has experimented a spectacular development in the last decade, exerting. Im guessing our department teaches a more substancefree approach in the higherlevel courses, based on the papers ive read by faculty.
Introduction the last five or six years have seen a substantial change in the nature of research into phonological theory. 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. This is hard to say because people add their own obscure proposals all the time. The prevailing nonsequential approach to phonology, the optimality theory, ot, is based not on rewrite rules but on constraints. Optimality theory ot is a linguistic model originally proposed by the linguists alan prince and paul smolensky in 1993. 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. 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. The syllable in optimality theory semantic scholar. Mccarthy university of massachusetts amherst abstract. It is a theory that has been most widely accepted in the realm of phonology, but has implications for all areas of linguistics. Nicholas rolle lectures at uc berkeley on optimality theory in phonology ling 115 2016.
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