Hale and reiss 1998, we are faced with the question of what type of grammar is best. Of course, categorical perception is not in the speakers ears at all. The wikipedia entry on optimality theory states, that. Phonology can be described as an aspect of language that deals with rules for the structure and sequencing of speech sounds. Viewed in this way, the general idea of underspecification has always been a part of any theory of phonology that includes such an evaluation metric. Many criticisms of ot are, according to its proponents, based on fundamental misunderstanding of how it works. One of the major advances in phonological theory during the past twenty years has been the refinement of a theory regarding the representation and behaviour of tones goldsmith 1976, 1990, fromkin. Oct 20, 2008 the essence of underspecification theory is to supply such predictable distinctive features or feature specifications by rule. In particu lar, all licensing relations are defined solely on this level. Optimality theory was introduced in the 1990s by linguists alan prince and paul smolensky optimality theory. Background the field of metrics studies how conventionalized rhythmic patterns are manifested by phonological material in verse. The relevance of feminine rhyme for phonological theory knaw. Optimality theory is a complex linguistic model of constraintbased patterns and markedness hierarchies and it is billed clearly as nativist. For phonology, the complexity approach is typically associated with the work of mary elbert, dan dinnsen, and judith gierut all formerly affiliated with indiana university.
Ot provides new angles on longstanding diachronic questions, whilst historical data and models of change bear directly on the assessment of ot. This is a preprint version of an article to appear in language and linguistics compass optimality theory and spanish phonology travis g. It espouses a serialist view of morphology that is rejected by most current phonologists. Every language has a wide variety of speech sounds phonemes. It can lead to much more elegant analyses in some cases. We begin with phonetics, a system for describing and recording the sounds of language. In addition, it is a substantial theory of the form, interaction.
The role of optimality theory and inductive grounding1 bruce p. The sound patterns of language there are only a dozen or so features needed to describe every speech sound in every human language all the languages in the world sound so different because the way the languages use speech sounds to form patterns differs from language to language. Guidelines for getting your phonological analysis started. Government phonology gp is a theoretical framework of linguistics, and more specifically of. In particular, it involves the way that native speakers linguistic knowledge allows them to classify particular instances of sounds into one category or another. Variation in phonology theory and evidence marc van oostendorp. Natural phonology was a theory based on the publications of its proponent david stampe in 1969 and more explicitly in 1979.
Geometry are examples of theories that deal with aspects of the nature of. What are the advantages disadvantages of a rulebased. It is a theory that has been most widely accepted in the realm of phonology, but has implications for all areas of linguistics. In this view, phonology is based on a set of universal phonological processes which interact with one another. This is a preprint version of an article to appear in. It is claimed that optimality theory cannot account for phonological opacity see idsardi 2000, for example. Sound segments knowing a language includes knowing the sounds of that language phonetics is the study of speech sounds we are able to segment a continuous stream of speech into distinct parts and recognize the parts in other words.
Lexical phonology henceforth lp in its different varieties is in essence a theory of the organization of the grammar, that is, of how phonology interacts with other components of the grammar, in particular morphology and syntax. Optimality theory in phonology alan prince and paul smolensky 1. Licensing and underspecification in optimality theory. Formal comparison and synthesis russell james norton a thesis submitted for the degree of doctor of philosophy department of language and linguistics university of essex july 2003. Lexical phonology is an approach to phonology that accounts for the interactions of morphology and phonology in the word building process. Bybee university of new mexico usagebased functionalism is the term used here to designate the particular version of american functionalism that argues that language use shapes language structure. Your book is focused on oldfashioned rewrite rules. Feel free to add an analysis to an existing example. Ot differs from other approaches to phonological analysis, such as autosegmental phonology and linear phonology. Thinking about the relation between generative grammar and language vari ation implies thinking about the. For example in english, the ng sound, as in ring, will never appear at the beginning of a word. This book outlines a system of phonological features that is minimally sufficient to distinguish all consonants and vowels in the languages of the world. The prevailing nonsequential approach to phonology, the optimality theory, ot, is based not on rewrite rules but on constraints.
The interpretation of phonetic transcriptions from different languages is a longstanding problem. In class we mainly approached phonology from a rulebased perspective, and were breifly told of ots constraintbased approach in passing. The extensive evidence is drawn from datasets with a combined total of about sound inventories. Aspects of underspecification theory phonology cambridge. Phonology tells us what sounds are in a language, how they do. For our purposes, it will be convenient to classify phonological changes under two headings, roughly corresponding to the. Mccarthy university of massachusetts amherst abstract. Chapter six the studyof natural phonology patriciajane donegan and david stampe 1. Optimality theory has drawn a good deal of criticism, most of which is directed at its application to phonology rather than syntax or other fields. Nov 30, 2016 in this weeks episode, we take a look at optimality theory. In this weeks episode, we take a look at optimality theory.
Pdf the present study aims to adopt the optimality theory to. Optimality theory has attracted substantial amounts of criticism, most of which is directed at its application to phonology rather than syntax or other fields. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions. Constraint interaction in generative grammar, 19932004. Although for a long time, a lot of phonological theory was successfully based on grammaticality judgments of scholars and informants. Optimality theory, autosegmental phonology and linear phonology. Introduction natural phonology is a modern development of the oldest explanatory theory of phonology. Yet certain welldocumented phenomena that are highly characteristic of child phonology remain to be integrated into theories of adult phonology. Optimality theory, in common with much recent work, shifts the burden from the theory of. Theories of articulatory and phonological skills according to 4 major theories. Morphological and phonological rules are seen as part of. Metrics and phonology are closely related fields whose interaction is yielding increasingly important results.
Autosegmental phonology, prosodie phonology, and the theory of feature. Optimality theory is a theory of phonology that drops chomskyan replacement rules in favor of a set of ranked constraints. Most topics which in conventional phonology have been viewed as sources of external evidence zwicky 1972b arein the province of natural phonology as surely asthe. 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. Articulation and phonological development theories flashcards. Could someone point me to a textbook or a paper which has the same example analayzed by the three approaches sidebyside. In this paper i will examine several basic principles of. Interface principles optimality theory if alignment right is ranked higher than no empty onset constraint, hoeden will be syllabified as hoed.
Current approaches to phonological theory edited by daniel a. In the case of natural phonology this means everything that language owes to the fact that it is spoken. What are the advantages disadvantages of a rulebased method of phonological analysis over competing methods such as optimality theory. Introduction if we adopt the standard assumption that a phonological grammar is appropriate for expressing regularities in child speech cf. Translation in structuralist and generative interface theory 51. Form and substance in phonological development joe pater university of massachusetts, amherst 1. Optimality theory in linguistics is the theory that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. It consists of ordered levels, which are the domain for certain phonological or morphological processes. 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. Like the natural phonology theory, this theory holds that a child stores speech forms correctly but has production constraints that lead to the use of phonological processes. We argue that abstraction from actions to intentions is fundamental to learning and understanding language at every level from phonetics to pragmatics. The goal of this chapter is to elucidate the state of the art with respect to issues and questions in child phonology, including recent findings, research methodologies and theoretical models. A lateral theory of phonology universite nice sophia.
Phonology we call this perceptual classification of sounds by human ears categorical perception. A theory of phonological features hardcover san duanmu. This article surveys the motivations for ot, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. Optimality theory ot shifts the focus of linguistic discovery from rules and derivations to constraints and rankings. However, i dont understand how optimality theory can deal with phonological opacity. 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. Ranking of no empty onset constraint is specific to the interface between morphology and phonology in the grammar of dutch. Optimality theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. Children have a set of ordered universal tendencies that are either innate or learned early on in life. In derivational phonology, effects that are inexplicable at the surface. An optimality theory account of phonological variation in. What links here related changes upload file special pages permanent link page information wikidata item cite this page. The lexicon plays a central, productive role in the theory.
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