<OT> New Posting: ROA-863

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 863-0906

Variation as accessing 'non-optimal' candidates: A rank-ordering model of EVAL

Andries W Coetzee <coetzee at umich.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=863


Abstract:
This paper argues that rather than just select the best
candidate, EVAL imposes a harmonic rank-ordering on the
full candidate set. Language users have access to this enriched
information, and it shapes their performance. This paper
applies this idea to variation. The claim is that language
users can access the full candidate set via the rank-ordering
imposed by EVAL. In variation, more than one candidate is
well-formed enough to count as grammatical. Consequently,
language users will access more than just the best candidate
from the rank-ordering. However, the accessibility of a
candidate depends on its position on the rank-ordering.
The higher position a candidate occupies, the more likely
it is to be selected. In a variable process, variants that
appear higher on the rank-ordering (that are more well-formed),
will therefore also be the more frequent variants. This
model is applied to variation in the phonology of Faialense
Portuguese and Ilokano.

Comments: To appear in Phonology
Keywords: variation, formal analysis, EVAL, Ilokano, Portuguese
Areas: Phonology
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=863