Positional weight constraints in ot ucsb linguistics. The account, which focuses here on the role of person, is developed in optimality theory. Faithfulness constraints militate for the preservation and identity of input structures and relations in. Variants of optimality theory with connectionistlike weighted constraints continue to be pursued in more recent work pater.
This is hard to say because people add their own obscure proposals all the time. Markedness is a central concept in the study of linguistics in the 20th and 21st centuries, and it can be traced back to the early developments of structuralist phonological theory. Learnability in optimality theory bruce tesar paul smolensky in this article we show how optimality theory yields a highly general constraint demotion principle for grammar learning. Optimality theory, markedness and second language syntax. Optimality theory and sla the goal of this paper is to argue that the kind of l2 pattern mentioned in the previous section can be insightfully accounted for within a constraint based framework as an instance of the emergence of the unmarked. Constraints that refer to a markedness hierarchy must be freely. Acquisition consists of the correct ranking of these innate markedness constraints or the. Constraint interaction in generative grammar compiles the most important readings about optimality theory in phonology from some of the most prominent. Markedness constraints impose requirements on the structural wellformedness of the output. In addition, youve stumbled across a problem in the theory of constraints, that there will be a divide among practitioners as to whether db is a constraint in the theory. There are two large sets of interacting constraints. In optimality theory, marked structure results in violations of markedness constraints.
In optimality theory ot, markedness hierarchies have been formalized in one of two ways. Optimality theory also has roots in neural network research. Suppose that the inputoutput relation is governed by conditions on the wellformedness of the output, markedness constraints, and by conditions. Optimality theory holds that all languages have a set of constraints which produce the basic phonological and grammatical patterns of that particular language. Fundamentals of optimality theory in the original version, an ot grammar consists of a set of innate, universal, violable constraints on output surface representations. Illustrations are provided involving syllabifi cation and vowel. The term the emergence of the unmarked describes situations in which a markedness constraint has an intermediate ranking, so that it is violated in some forms, but nonetheless has observable effects when higherranked constraints are irrelevant. Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology 1. In a markedunmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. Pdf the syllable in optimality theory researchgate. Markedness conflation in optimality theory phonology. Sonority variation in stochastic optimality theory. Central to it are two formal devices which have been proposed in connection with phonology. This paper explores an alternative conception of markedness that is comparative.
Three important constraint families are explored faithfulness, alignment, and markedness. The phonology of any language is determined by the ranking of the set of universal constraints constraint hierarchy. These constraints evaluate markedness at different levels of the phonology, and guide the building of. Languages that do not resolve hiatus have highranking faithfulness con. About this document this article is a draft of my chapter on markedness and faithfulness constraints in the blackwells companion to phonology chapter 74 the published version is 11,000 words long. The basic principles of optimality theory are introduced and explained gen, con, and eval. Faithfulness constraints require that the observed surface form the output match the underlying or lexical form the input in some particular way. Smolensky 1993 provides a framework which allows for the development of a unified. Form input pronunciation output two premises of the theory. Optimality theory optimality theory prince and smolensky 1993 ot is a theory of constraint interaction. Markedness and subject choice in optimality theory.
How to rank constraints within optimality theory quora. Chapter x markedness, faithfulness, positions, and contexts. Input, output candidates, markedness constraints, and ineffability in. In optimality theory, forms are marked with respect to some constraint if they violate it. The key distinction between markedness and faithfulness constraints is introduced. It is a central hypothesis of optimality theory that a grammar ranks all the constraints in con and that any ranking of con is a grammar. The markedness constraint complex is unviolated in gs language. Theory, in which markedness has no substantive status in the grammar, but functions as an external system of annotations on parameter values, evaluating a grammars complexity. Alignment and optimality theory this paper looks at the linguistic phenomenon of alignment,in which languages show a preference for certain linguistic features to be aligned with other linguistic features. Optimality theory ot is a theory of constraint interaction.
Optimality theory in phonology california institute of. Project muse templatic morphology and indexed markedness. 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. Markedness is built into grammars in the form of universal output constraints which directly state marked or unmarked patterns, for example. The present paper explores how silversteins generalization might be expressed in a formal theory of grammar, and how it can play a role in individual grammars. In optimality theory, every constraint is universal. Two types of analyses of positional strength have emerged in the optimality. A fundamental goal for research within ot is to identify a set of universal constraints that, upon permutation, predict the set of possible empirically attested adult languages. As you may have noticed from the other answer here, this theory is somewhat controversial, despite being one the major theories of grammar and phonology in generative linguistics. It lacks generality, and falsely predicts that d deleted before b when preceded by an obstruent, l, r, or a vowel. A fundamental goal for research within ot is to identify a set of universal constraints that, upon permutation, predict the set. In optimality theory ot, a linguistic system consists of a ranking of a universal set of constraints. Lenition and fortition in optimality theory jennifer l.
For chomsky and halle, phonological features went beyond a universal phonetic vocabulary to encompass an evaluation metric, a means of. Part i shows how the ideas play out over a variety of phenomena and generalization patterns. Acquisition consists of the correct ranking of these innate markedness constraints or the stepwise demotion of these initially. Clinical application of optimality theory 243 optimality theory is different from the majority of linguistic frameworks in that it does not appeal to rules or processes to explain such patterns in grammar. In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as unusual or divergent in comparison to a more common or regular form. Illustrations are provided involving syllabification and. Markedness, faithfulness, positions, and contexts 1 chapter x markedness, faithfulness, positions, and contexts. Optimality theory and sla the goal of this paper is to argue that the kind of l2 pattern mentioned in the previous section can be insightfully accounted for within a constraintbased framework as an instance of the emergence of the unmarked. Pdf optimality theory, markedness and second language. The main idea is that grammars impose a set of restrictions on what are valid surface forms. This article explores an alternative conception of markedness. Con is not a grammar, but merely a set of often conflicting constraints. The markedness constraints of classic optimality theory assign violationmarks to output candidates without reference to the input or to other candidates. Smiths 2002 larger theory of positional markedness constraints in section 4.
Constraints that refer to a markedness hierarchy must be freely rankable and mention a contiguous range of the hierarchy, including the most marked element. Conversely, when a process fails to apply, this means that the markedness constraint whose satisfaction would result in the application of that process is dominated, either by all relevant faithfulness constraints, or by at least one conflicting markedness constraint. A survey of markedness theory with special attention to the framework of optimality theory. Markedness and subject choice in optimality theory springerlink. Illustrations are provided involving syllabification and vowel harmony in tibetan and prosodic phonotactics in tonkawa. Markedness entered generative linguistic theory through noam chomsky and morris halles the sound pattern of english. We find the answer offered by optimality theory prince and smolensky, 1993 worth investigating. Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology. Templatic morphology and indexed markedness constraints kathryn flack the existence of morphemespecific markedness constraints has been debated in optimality theory work on both templatic morphology and exceptions to phonological generalizations. Nonparametric learning of phonological constraints in. However, during the course of the 20th century it has acquired so many different meanings and uses that its current usage is still much debated and not clearly defined. For example, nocoda is satisfied by open syllables b. Optimality theory prince and smolensky 1993, mccarthy and prince 1993a,b turns markedness statements into the actual substance of grammars.
Optimality theory is grammar about rules or constraints. Faithfulness constraints prevent every input from being realized as some unmarked form ba for example, and markedness constraints motivate change. However, the explicit bifurcation into markedness and faithfulness constraints is specifically found in optimality theory ot. Smith and elliott moreton university of north carolina, chapel hill abstract constraints based on the sonority scale and other markedness hierarchies have been formalized. Introduction in the preceding chapter we discussed the content and manifestations of grammatical and phonological markedness and we advanced the claim that there is a correlation between the two, instantiated by the marked in the marked mim generalization. Grammatical markedness and optimality theory ot prince and smolensky 19932004 distinguishes two types of constraints, dubbed faithfulness and markedness. The fundamental idea behind ot is that surface forms of language. How many phonological constraints are there in optimality. The resulting learning procedure specifically exploits the grammatical structure of optimality theory, independent of the content of substantive con.
Markedness and faithfulness constraints lacy major. This article argues that both languagespecific conflation and universal markedness relations can be expressed in optimality theory. Prince and smolensky 1993 and its developments especially mccarthy and prince 1999, as well as in theories based on ot stochastic ot. These restrictions can be formalized in terms of constraints. These forces are embodied by constraints, each of which makes a requirement about some aspect of grammatical output forms. Optimality theory prince and smolensky 1993 offers an approach to linguistic theory that aims to combine an empirically adequate theory of markedness with a precise formal sense of what it means to be unmarked. To arrive at a grammar, we impose a prioritization or ranking on the constraints in con. Comparative constraints distinguish two situations. Among the most robust generalizations in syntactic markedness is the association of semantic role with personanimacy rank, discussed first in silverstein 1976. In many cases, an actual utterance violates one or more of these constraints, so a sense of wellformedness applies to that utterance which violates the least number or least important constraints. Constructions that are highly marked will be punished by highranking markedness constraints. Mccarthy this dissertation proposes that markedness constraints in optimality theory. Three important constraint families are explored faithfulness.
Implications for markedness hierarchies jennifer l. These are markedness scales, where the least marked items appear on the top of each scale. Implicational markedness and frequency in constraintbased. Bradley university of california, davis abstract this article surveys research in spanish phonology from the perspective of optimality theory, a formal linguistic framework based on ranked and violable constraints. Chapter x markedness, faithfulness, positions, and. At the heart of optimality theory lies the idea that language, and in fact every grammar, is a system of conflicting forces. Objects and mechanisms called constraints have featured in many theories of the phonological and syntactic modules. It arose in part as an alternative to the connectionist theory of harmonic grammar, developed in 1990 by geraldine legendre, yoshiro miyata and paul smolensky. Optimality theory formalizes grammars as rankings of universal constraints.
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