<OT> New Posting: ROA-973

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 973-0608

Between-Language Frequency Effects in Phonological Theory

Andries W Coetzee <coetzee at umich.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=973


Abstract:
Many phonological properties are not evenly distributed
in the languages of the world. For instance, only 25% of
the languages in the UPSID database have back unrounded
vowels in their phonemic inventories, and even fewer (10%)
have front rounded vowels. Optimality Theory is very successful
in differentiating between possible and impossible patterns
(through factorial typology). However, in classic OT there
is no straight-forward way of accounting for frequency difference
s amongst the possible systems. I argue that the central
aim of linguistic theory is to account for significant linguistic
generalizations. In so far as these uneven distributions
of phonological properties are significant, they therefore
fall within the scope of linguistic theory. An adequate
theory of phonology must be able to account for these inter-langu
age distributions. I show that Optimality Theory can easily
be extended so that it can also account for these inter-language
distributional patterns. Two specific extensions to the
classic Optimality Theory model are necessary:


(i) The OT-model that Anttila (1995, 1997) developed to
account for within language variation and frequency effects
is extended so that it can also make predictions about between-la
nguage frequency effects.


(ii) A new family of constraints, Preference Constraints,
is introduced. These constraints evaluate constraint rankings
rather than candidates. They penalize rankings that would
result in patterns that are attested less frequently crosslinguis
tically. In this way Preference Constraints help to account
for the fact that the output patterns associated with these
rankings are observed less frequently.


By these two extensions to Optimality Theory the coverage
of the theory is extended to also include cross-linguistic
frequency distributions.


I also argue that the introduction of Preference Constraints
obviates the need for fixed markedness hierarchies (such
as the place markedness hierarchy). The extension to Optimality
Theory argued for in this paper therefore also has implications
for how markedness is expressed in the theory.

Comments: Ms from 2002
Keywords: typololgy, implicational universals
Areas: Phonology
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=973