Segmental Phonology in Optimality Theory (review)

Language ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-812
Author(s):  
Andrew Nevins
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Theory Review

scholarly journals Computationally, tone is different

Phonology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Jardine
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
The Asymmetry

This paper establishes that unbounded circumambient processes, phonological processes for which crucial information in the environment may appear unboundedly far away on both sides of a target, are common in tonal phonology, but rare in segmental phonology. It then argues that this typological asymmetry is best characterised by positing that tone is more computationally complex than segmental phonology. The evidence for the asymmetry is based around attestations of unbounded tonal plateauing, but it is also shown how the ‘sour-grapes’ harmony pathology is unbounded circumambient. The paper argues that such processes are not weakly deterministic, which contrasts with previous typological work on segmental phonology. Positing that weak determinism bounds segmental phonology but not tonal phonology thus captures the typological asymmetry. It is also discussed why this explanation is superior to any offered by Optimality Theory.

The Derivational Residue in Phonological Optimality Theory (review)

Language ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 410-411
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Koontz-Garboden
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theory Review

The Syllable in Optimality Theory (review)

Language ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-944
Author(s):  
Curt. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theory Review

Computation also matters: a response to Pater (2018)

Phonology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Jardine
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Global Optimisation ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Computational Properties

This article responds to Pater (2018) by arguing for a view of phonology that captures the computational properties of phonological processes. Jardine's (2016) statement that tone is formally more complex than segmental phonology is not a claim, as Pater characterises it, but an empirical observation. This article outlines how phonological theories can incorporate such observations, and integrate them with considerations of phonological substance. The conclusion is that, while computational characterisations are not necessarily alternatives to Optimality Theory, it is extremely diffcult to capture the computational nature of phonological processes in Optimality Theory, due to the expressive power of global optimisation.

A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory (review)

Language ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 924-927
Author(s):  
Diana B. Archangeli
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theory Review

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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