Violable is variable: Optimality theory and linguistic variation

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory R. Guy
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Optimal Output ◽  
Rule Model ◽  
Single Constraint ◽  
Constraint Effects

ABSTRACTOptimality theory (OT) (McCarthy & Prince, 1993; Prince & Smolensky, 1993) has been proposed as a constraint-based theory of phonology in which the phonological facts of each language are accounted for by a language-specific ordering of a universal inventory of constraints. The constraints, expressing desirable (i.e., optimal) phonological states, evaluate possible candidate forms, selecting the optimal output. Any constraint may be violated by a surface form if it is overridden by a higherranked constraint; the ordinal sequence of constraints provides a weak quantification of constraint effects. Variability has been treated within OT by varying constraint orders. This model is analogous in several important respects to the variable rule model (VR) of Labov (1969) and Cedergren and Sankoff (1974). In VR, variable constraints express desirable phonological states which are variably realized on the surface, when not overridden by other constraints; constraints are probabilistically quantified. This article compares the OT and VR models, arguing that the VR model is superior on theoretical and empirical grounds: constraint effects in VR are stable, transparent, and learnable. Moreover, the probabilistic treatment of constraint effects allows VR to model successfully cases in which multiple violations of a single constraint lead to a cumulative reduction in likelihood of a form; such cases cannot be efficiently treated in OT.

Constraints in Verbal Compounding

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 39-64
Author(s):  
Sang-Cheol Ahn
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Dominance Relation ◽  
Optimal Selection ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Morphological Studies ◽  
Selection Of

The purpose of this paper is two fold. First, I will examine the internal structure of the N-V-i construction, in terms of the constraints on argument linking. I will incorporate the major concepts in current morphological studies (Sproat 1985, Di Sciullo &1 Williams 1987, and Grimshaw 1990). As for the related issues in Korean, I will reexamine the earlier studies of Ahn (1985), Sohn (1987), H.-Y. Kim (1990), Yu-Cho (1994), and Shi (1993, 1995). Then, I will provide a new categorization of compounds in terms of morpho-lexical and semantic consideration. I will test this categorization phonologically. Second, I will examine several constraints on the selection of a proper nominalizing suffixal form. For this part, I will employ the framework of the Optimality Theory by Prince & Smolensky (1993) and McCarthy & Prince (1993, 1994). Here I will propose five major constraints and their dominance hierarchy and show how these constraints and the dominance relation can account for the optimal selection of the surface form.

Optimality Theory and variable word-final deletion in Faetar

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Nagy ◽  
Bill Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Optimal Output ◽  
Input Form ◽  
Constraint Hierarchy

ABSTRACTWe examine a pattern of end-of-word deletion in Faetar, a Francoprovençal dialect spoken in southern Italy, considering synchronic variants like [brókələ] ˜ [brókəl] ˜ [brókə] ˜ [brok] ‘fork’. We use the word “deletion” as a synchronic description of the facts; speakers do not always phonetically produce everything in the input form, assuming that the input form is the longest form ever produced. Optimality Theory accounts for this type of variation by positing different rankings of the constraint hierarchy, each of which produces a different optimal output. The predication of alternate constraint rankings within a single dialect, however, poses problems for Optimality Theory as it has been formulated, necessitating numerous grammars for each speaker. We propose floating constraints (Reynolds, 1994), whereby some particular constraint within a single grammar may be represented as falling anywhere within a designated range in the ranking hierarchy. In a previous study (Reynolds & Nagy, 1994) we showed that this model accounts for the distribution of types of output forms produced. Here, we analyze a corpus of 624 tokens from 40 speakers and show that the pattern of distribution of tokens is accounted for as well: the number of rankings that produce each output form is closely correlated to the number of output forms that occur in the data set.

scholarly journals A Phonological Property of Syllable Structure and Economy in Urdu: An OT Account

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-84
Author(s):  
Dedy Suhery ◽  
Happy Sri Rezeki Purba ◽  
Mohammad Hamid Raza ◽  
Khairun Nisah
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Major Factors

Abstract  This paper contains the phonological properties of the syllable structures and the economical procedures of the words in the Urdu language. The paper determines the behavior of certain segments that attach to its own neighboring words and elaborates the economy of the syllable structure of tokens in a particular language. In Urdu, there are various types of segmental processes in terms of addition or deletion of phonemes that affects to root and alters the entire physical mechanism structure of words. The objectives of this paper are to know the exact economic conditions of syllable structures in the words after the addition or elision of segments in the Urdu language. All the process of conflicts between the segments will manipulate by the help of constraint rankings in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993). The general purpose of this paper is to reveal the whole criteria of implications of principles of Optimality theory and explore the actual framework of syllables with their marginal and obligatory components. The researcher governs the phonological property of consonant clusters with the help of faithfulness constraints and markedness constraints. The architecture of root word completely varies from the artificial formulation of other words, but after the imposition of constraints, we reveal the concrete fact of linguistic items in a specific language. The groundwork of this paper leads to the systematic phenomena of epenthesis and elimination of vowels or consonants with the tenets of OT. In this study, the researcher conveys the representations of consonant clusters and how the adjacent consonants parse by the effect of the extraneous segment in the syllable structure of words. The researcher considers the typology of the syllable structure of words and the phonological observations of linguistic features. This paper deals with the gradient property of segments that alters the framework of underlying form and affected by some other features at the surface form. The generalization of each step of the syllable structure of words should be related to the positional variation of input and output candidates. The conflicts between input and output candidates to become the winner as an optimal candidate can be solved only on the presence of constraint rankings that are evolving in the Optimality Theory. The central idea of this paper delineated the reflection of surface forms that create conflicts between other candidates, solve only through the use of constraints of Optimality Theory. A surface form may be optimal in the sense of least serious violations of a set of violable constraints in a language hierarchy of constraints. It is considered that syllable structure with the phonological and phonetic representation of forms is the major ingredient generalization of the structure of words in a particular language. It is a crucial aspect of a sequence of segments to organize in a well-formed structure after the intervention of vowels and consonants because syllable governs the account of epenthesis and elimination process. In the pattern of sequence of segments in the syllables, there is the process of epenthesis and deletion of phonemes that creates a new wave of segmental processes. This paper determines the syllabic well-formedness turn out of instantiation that refers to the conflicts between faithfulness and well-formedness structure of words regarding the syllables. The range of syllables and the economic property of words in the individual languages rise by the interactions of well-formedness and faithfulness constraints. The basic provision of this paper is to know the precise nature of the typology of the syllable structure in the words and explores how OT captures the well-formedness constraints of input and output candidates. Our whole discussion in this paper will draw on the typological representation of Optimality Theory and the logical results of Prince and Smolensky (1993) that are transposed into a correspondence format. After the analysis of the structural typology of syllables and epenthesis in the Urdu language, we will develop the factorial typology of syllabic well-formedness and faithfulness constraints in the words. We will elaborate on the major factors of constraints and epenthesis at the level of cross-linguistic properties of a particular language. In this study, we will learn how a range of phonological factors of syllable structures triggered by the markedness constraints that is depending on the formal features of faithfulness constraints. It is investigated that unity and diversity at the level of syllable structure are oriented by OT due to the interaction between deep and surface forms to mark the constraints in various repair strategies. It is the process of relating the ranking of different faithfulness constraints with the result of the typological observation of candidates. This paper determines that the factorial typology of the syllable structure of words is based on the Correspondence Theory (McCarthy and Prince 1995) that is a sub-theory of faithfulness constraints allowing a limited set of structural changes such as; addition, deletion, insertion, fusion, featural changes, etc. The central goal of this paper is to shed light on the core behavior of OT principles that are applied to the syllables of the words to find out the exact tokens of a particular language. It is examined that the universality of constraint rankings is sketched by the application of linguistic theory with the notions of ‘possible grammatical processes' and possible interactions of processes'. Some experts provided the values of syllable structures with the tenets of OT as the unmarked value for open or closed syllables. It is a type of assumption that some languages may or may not be open syllables (CV) and closed syllables (VC), while the notion of universality represents all aspects of syllables in all existing languages. This paper reveals that the notion of markedness constraints and faithfulness constraints is not only relevant to the sound system but also proposes to the syllable structure of words and their economy in a particular language. In addition to that, I also apply some better-known arguments originally adduce in support of constraint rankings. Keywords: Optimality Theory; Syllable Structure; Economy; Segmental Processes; Syllable Typology  

A Lookahead Effect in Mbe Reduplication: Implications for Harmonic Serialism

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 845-859
Author(s):  
Wei Wei ◽  
Rachel Walker
Keyword(s):  
Generating Function ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Harmonic Serialism ◽  
Parallel Version ◽  
The Status ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Serial Evaluation

Various phenomena involving the interaction of reduplication and phonology have been brought to bear on evaluating parallel versus serial theories of phonology. In Base-Reduplicant (BR) Correspondence Theory ( McCarthy and Prince 1995 ), implemented in the classic parallel version of Optimality Theory (P-OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004 ), the mapping from the underlying representation to the surface output is direct, without intermediate stages. In P-OT, the candidate-generating function GEN can simultaneously introduce multiple changes to the input. In contrast, the theory of Serial Template Satisfaction (STS; McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin (MKM) 2012 ) is an approach to reduplication couched within Harmonic Serialism ( McCarthy 2000 et seq .), a version of OT with serial evaluation that includes intermediate levels of structure. In Harmonic Serialism, GEN is restricted to making no more than one change at each derivational step, a property known as gradualness. An argument put forth in favor of STS is that it does not admit a number of reduplicative patterns that MKM claim are unattested, which are otherwise predicted by BR Correspondence Theory in P-OT ( MKM 2012:225 ). Among these are patterns formerly interpreted as overapplication, backcopying, and underapplication. While such patterns previously served as arguments for BR Correspondence Theory ( McCarthy and Prince 1995 , 1999 ), MKM reexamine those cases and conclude that they do not provide solid evidence against a serial approach. Among the remaining patterns, coda-skipping reduplication and derivational lookahead appear to offer the strongest arguments in favor of STS. These are the two patterns for which the parallel and serial versions of OT make quite distinct predictions. However, recent studies have called the status of arguments involving both patterns into question. Zukoff (2017) shows that STS does not actually exclude coda-skipping reduplication, because certain mechanics that STS employs to account for attested partial onset skipping would predict coda skipping. Adler and Zymet (2017) identify a reduplication pattern in Maragoli that poses a type of lookahead problem for STS: the ordering of reduplication and hiatus-driven glide formation depends on lookahead to the surface form of the reduplicant, which favors a simple onset. In light of the ongoing discussion on these issues, this squib focuses on another kind of lookahead effect in reduplication where the amount of material copied would depend on a subsequent phonological change in the setting of a serial evaluation. Due to the stepwise gradual change in Harmonic Serialism, STS predicts that lookahead effects are not possible, while the potential for multiple, simultaneous changes in P-OT predicts that they exist. In this squib, we argue that a reduplicative affixation in Mbe instantiates a lookahead effect—specifically, one that closely resembles a hypothetical pattern that MKM identify as a problem for STS, were it to be attested. Furthermore, the variation in reduplicant size is arguably a case of “simple-syllable reduplication,” a pattern claimed not to be predicted by STS. This reduplicative pattern in Mbe is straightforwardly accounted for in P-OT. However, in STS the pattern cannot be understood as a lookahead phenomenon, which gives rise to a treatment with unwanted stipulations and complications. We consider three alternatives in STS involving allomorphy or different templatic approaches, but find shortcomings in each.

scholarly journals A unified analysis of two reduplication processes in Saraiki

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-382
Author(s):  
Jeroen van de Weijer ◽  
Firdos Atta
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Single Constraint ◽  
Constraint Hierarchy

AbstractWe analyse two reduplication processes in Saraiki, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Pakistan. The two processes are only minimally different: the first type involves total reduplication and the second type involves overwriting with an initial consonant (“fixed segment reduplication”). The goal of the paper is to expose the difficulties of analysing both processes in a single grammar, i.e. with a single constraint hierarchy in Optimality Theory: we finally opt for an analysis based on allomorphy for the second type, to capture the morpheme-specific nature of the processes involved.

scholarly journals HOW HAS OPTIMALITY THEORY ACHIEVED THE GOALS OF LINGUISTIC THEORY

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Israa .B Abdurrahman
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Central Idea ◽  
Recent Origin ◽  
Grammatical Framework

Optimality Theory (OT) is a grammatical framework of recent origin presented by Prince and Smolensky in 1993. The central idea of Optimality Theory is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing 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 universal and languages differ in the ranking of constraints, giving priorities to some constraints over others. Such rankings are based on ‘strict’ domination: 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. This paper tries to seek the clues to prove that optimality theory achieves the goals of linguistic theory successfully

Phonologically conditioned allomorphy in the morphology of Surmiran (Rumantsch)

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Morphological Properties ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Extended Sense ◽  
Phonological Rule

Alternations between allomorphs that are not directly related by phonological rule, but whose selection is governed by phonological properties of the environment, have attracted the sporadic attention of phonologists and morphologists. Such phenomena are commonly limited to rather small corners of a language's structure, however, and as a result have not been a major theoretical focus. This paper examines a set of alternations in Surmiran, a Swiss Rumantsch language, that have this character and that pervade the entire system of the language. It is shown that the alternations in question, best attested in the verbal system, are not conditioned by any coherent set of morphological properties (either straightforwardly or in the extended sense of ‘morphomes’ explored in other Romance languages by Maiden). These alternations are, however, straightforwardly aligned with the location of stress in words, and an analysis is proposed within the general framework of Optimality Theory to express this. The resulting system of phonologically conditioned allomorphy turns out to include the great majority of patterning which one might be tempted to treat as productive phonology, but which has been rendered opaque (and subsequently morphologized) as a result of the working of historical change.

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