Relational hierarchies in Optimality Theory: the case of syllable contact

Phonology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Gouskova
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Constraint Set ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Hierarchical Constraints ◽  
Constraint Hierarchies

A number of phonological laws require adjacent elements to stand a certain distance apart from each other on some prominence scale. For example, according to the Syllable Contact Law, the greater the sonority slope between the coda and the following onset, the better. Languages such as Faroese, Icelandic, Sidamo, Kazakh and Kirghiz select different thresholds for an acceptable sonority slope. This article proposes a theory for deriving hierarchies of relational constraints such as the Syllable Contact Law from prominence scales in the constraint set CON in Optimality Theory. The proposal is compared to two alternative approaches, non-hierarchical constraints and the local conjunction of constraint hierarchies, which are argued to make undesirable empirical and theoretical predictions.

scholarly journals Substance matters: a reply to Jardine (2016)

Phonology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Pater
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Constraint Set ◽  
Tonal Patterns ◽  
Formal Distinction

Jardine (2016) claims that tonal phonology is more formally complex than the phonology of other segmental features, in that only tonal phonology goes beyond the class of weakly deterministic maps. He then goes on to argue that this formal distinction is superior to any available treatment in Optimality Theory. This reply points out that Jardine's formal distinction conflates attested and unattested tonal patterns, which can be distinguished in Optimality Theory, given a substantively defined constraint set.

World Englishes and Phonological Theory

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Uffmann
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Point Contact ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Active Constraints ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Constraint Hierarchies ◽  
Substrate Constraint

The relationship between phonological theory and World Englishes is generally characterized by a mutual lack of interest. This chapter argues for a greater engagement of both fields with each other, looking at constraint-based theories of phonology, especially Optimality Theory (OT), as a case in point. Contact varieties of English provide strong evidence for synchronically active constraints, as it is substrate or L1 constraints that are regularly transferred to the contact variety, not rules. Additionally, contact varieties that have properties that are in some way ‘in between’ the substrate and superstrate systems provide evidence for constraint hierarchies or implicational relationships between constraints, illustrated here primarily with examples from syllable structure. Conversely, for a scholar working on the description of World Englishes, OT can offer an explanation of where the patterns found in a contact variety come from, namely from the transfer of substrate constraint rankings (and subsequent gradual constraint demotion).

A Realization Optimality Theory approach to blocking and extended morphological exponence

2011 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 673-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHENG XU ◽  
MARK ARONOFF
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Markedness Constraint ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Morphosyntactic Feature ◽  
Extended Exponence

Blocking in inflection occurs when a morphological exponent prevents the application of another exponent expressing the same feature value, thus barring the occurrence of multiple exponents of a single morphosyntactic feature value. In instances of extended exponence, more than one exponent in the same word realizes the same feature value. We provide a unified account of blocking and extended exponence that combines a realizational approach to inflection with Optimality Theory (Realization Optimality Theory), encoding morphological realization rules as ranked violable constraints. The markedness constraint *Feature Split bars the realization of any morphosyntactic feature value by more than one exponent. If *Feature Split ranks lower than two or more realization constraints expressing the same feature value, then we observe extended exponence. Otherwise, we find blocking of lower-ranked exponents. We show that Realization Optimality Theory is superior to various alternative approaches to blocking and extended morphological exponence.

scholarly journals Syntax Prosody in Optimality Theory (SPOT) app tutorial

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 243
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bellik ◽  
Nick Kalivoda
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Constraint Set ◽  
The Creation

SPOT (Syntax Prosody in Optimality Theory app; http://spot.sites.ucsc.edu) automates candidate generation and evaluation for work on the syntax-prosody interface. SPOT is intended to facilitate the creation and comparison of multiple versions of an analysis, in service of refining constraint definitions and theory development. The codebase is available at https://github.com/syntax-prosody-ot. This paper briefly explains the motivation for the SPOT app, then walks through the process of creating an analysis in SPOT. We show how to create input syntactic trees, either manually or automatically; how to select a constraint set; and how to generate tableaux with candidates, constraints, and violation counts. Finally, we show how to use the output of SPOT to calculate rankings and typologies using an OT application.

Evaluating the Complexity of Optimality Theory

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Heinz ◽  
Gregory M. Kobele ◽  
Jason Riggle
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Efficient Computation ◽  
Alternative Representation ◽  
Constraint Set ◽  
Optimal Surface ◽  
Insight Into

Idsardi (2006) claims that Optimality Theory (OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004) is “in general computationally intractable” on the basis of a proof adapted from Eisner 1997a. We take issue with this conclusion on two grounds. First, the intractability result holds only in cases where the constraint set is not fixed in advance (contra usual definitions of OT), and second, the result crucially depends on a particular representation of OT grammars. We show that there is an alternative representation of OT grammars that allows for efficient computation of optimal surface forms and provides deeper insight into the sources of complexity of OT. We conclude that it is a mistake to reject OT on the grounds that it is computationally intractable.

Summing constraints in and across properties

Phonology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-381
Author(s):  
Wm. G. Bennett ◽  
Natalie DelBusso
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Full System ◽  
Property Theory ◽  
Property Analysis ◽  
General Constraints ◽  
Constraint Set ◽  
Systematic Effects ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Work in Optimality Theory on the constraint set, Con, has often raised the question of whether certain types of constraints have multiple specific versions or are single general constraints that effectively sum the violations of specific variants. Comparing and evaluating analyses that differ in this way requires knowing the effect of this kind of summing on the full typology, which itself depends on the relationship of summands in the full system. Such relationships can be difficult to ascertain from inspecting violation profiles alone. This paper uses Property Theory to analyse the systematic effects of summing constraints in two distinct kinds of relationships: (i) across distinct properties, and (ii) within a constraint class in a single property. The results show how these two types collapse the typology in different, yet predictable, ways. Property Analysis provides a key to identifying constraint relationships and so to delineating the effect of summing.

The Complexity of Ranking Hypotheses in Optimality Theory

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Riggle
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Complexity Measure ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Constraint Set ◽  
Learnability Theory ◽  
Concept Classes

Given a constraint set with k constraints in the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), what is its capacity as a classification scheme for linguistic data? One useful measure of this capacity is the size of the largest data set of which each subset is consistent with a different grammar hypothesis. This measure is known as the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension (VCD) and is a standard complexity measure for concept classes in computational learnability theory. In this work, I use the three-valued logic of Elementary Ranking Conditions to show that the VCD of Optimality Theory with k constraints is k-1. Analysis of OT in terms of the VCD establishes that the complexity of OT is a well-behaved function of k and that the ‘hardness’ of learning in OT is linear in k for a variety of frameworks that employ probabilistic definitions of learnability.

scholarly journals The Spanish lexicon stores stems with theme vowels, not roots with inflectional class features

Probus ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Distributed Morphology ◽  
Phonological Process ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Unrestricted Access ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Locality Conditions ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Better Than

Abstract The choice of theme vowels in Spanish nouns and adjectives can be predicted neither from the phonological shape of roots nor from syntactic features like gender. However, this state of affairs does not require the postulation of inflectional class features. The alternative is for the Spanish lexicon to store stems with their theme vowels, instead of roots annotated with declension diacritics; default generalizations over the lexical entries of stems can be expressed by means of lexical redundancy rules. The hypothesis of stem storage is compatible with the failure of Spanish theme vowels to surface in certain environments: this is demonstrably caused by an entirely general and regular phonological process deleting unaccented stem-final vowels before suffixes beginning with another vowel. Stem storage receives further support from psycholinguistic data from recognition latencies. Additional new evidence comes from cyclic locality conditions on allomorph selection, as shown by an analysis of the well-known stress-driven alternation displayed by items like [kont-á-ɾ] ‘count.inf’ ∼ [kwént-a] ‘count. 3sg’. In derivatives like 〚N 〚V kont-a〛 ðóɾ-∅〛 ‘counter’, assuming that diphthongal allomorphy is a property of the root incorrectly predicts that the choice of allomorph will be determined in the first cycle: i.e. *[kwentaðóɾ]. The locality problem vanishes if /koNt-a/ and /kweNt-a/ are both listed in the lexicon as stem allomorphs. These data show that Stratal Optimality Theory allied to a stem-driven theory of morphology performs better than alternative approaches to allomorphic locality. Root-driven Distributed Morphology is too local: the domains for allomorph selection that it generates are too narrow. Conversely, noncyclic versions of Optimality Theory fail to predict allomorphic locality (even if they can describe its effects) because they endow allomorph selection with unrestricted access to the global environment.

Microcalorimeters for X-Ray Spectroscopy

1988 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
E. Silver ◽  
C. Hailey ◽  
S. Labov ◽  
N. Madden ◽  
D. Landis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Thermal Response ◽  
Low Noise ◽  
High Resolution Spectroscopy ◽  
Superconducting Transition ◽  
Sapphire Substrates ◽  
Laboratory Plasmas ◽  
Adiabatic Demagnetization ◽  
Theoretical Predictions

The merits of microcalorimetry below 1°K for high resolution spectroscopy has become widely recognized on theoretical grounds. By combining the high efficiency, broadband spectral sensitivity of traditional photoelectric detectors with the high resolution capabilities characteristic of dispersive spectrometers, the microcalorimeter could potentially revolutionize spectroscopic measurements of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. In actuality, however, the performance of prototype instruments has fallen short of theoretical predictions and practical detectors are still unavailable for use as laboratory and space-based instruments. These issues are currently being addressed by the new collaborative initiative between LLNL, LBL, U.C.I., U.C.B., and U.C.D.. Microcalorimeters of various types are being developed and tested at temperatures of 1.4, 0.3, and 0.1°K. These include monolithic devices made from NTD Germanium and composite configurations using sapphire substrates with temperature sensors fabricated from NTD Germanium, evaporative films of Germanium-Gold alloy, or material with superconducting transition edges. A new approache to low noise pulse counting electronics has been developed that allows the ultimate speed of the device to be determined solely by the detector thermal response and geometry. Our laboratory studies of the thermal and resistive properties of these and other candidate materials should enable us to characterize the pulse shape and subsequently predict the ultimate performance. We are building a compact adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator for conveniently reaching 0.1°K in the laboratory and for use in future satellite-borne missions. A description of this instrument together with results from our most recent experiments will be presented.

Alternative approaches to ultra-high resolution imaging

1991 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 650-651
Author(s):  
J.M. Cowley
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
High Voltage ◽  
High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽  
Crystal Defects ◽  
High Resolution Imaging ◽  
General Applicability ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Radiation Resistant ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Alternative Approaches

By extrapolation of past experience, it would seem that the future of ultra-high resolution electron microscopy rests with the advances of electron optical engineering that are improving the instrumental stability of high voltage microscopes to achieve the theoretical resolutions of 1Å or better at 1MeV or higher energies. While these high voltage instruments will undoubtedly produce valuable results on chosen specimens, their general applicability has been questioned on the basis of the excessive radiation damage effects which may significantly modify the detailed structures of crystal defects within even the most radiation resistant materials in a period of a few seconds. Other considerations such as those of cost and convenience of use add to the inducement to consider seriously the possibilities for alternative approaches to the achievement of comparable resolutions.

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