<OT> New Posting: ROA-1041

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 1041-0809

Multi-level OT: An argument from speech pathology

Dirk-Bart den Ouden <d-ouden at northwestern.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1041


Abstract:
This paper presents an optimality-theoretic approach to
dealing with variation as well as systematicity in aphasic
output patterns. Fluent and nonfluent speakers with aphasia
after stroke showed different patterns of segment deletion
in onset and coda cluster reduction. While onsets were consistent
ly reduced to their nonsonorant components in both groups
of speakers and nonfluent speakers showed the same pattern
in coda cluster reductions, the fluent patients had a 50-50
distribution of sonorant versus nonsonorant deletions in
codas. With parallels to psycholinguistic modeling, it is
argued that these data are best accounted for by assuming
two different levels of computation, with some but not all
markedness constraints being level-specific. At the deeper,
phonological level of computation, impaired in the fluent
speakers, constraints on both segmental and syllable output
wellformedness gain prominence, due to a lowering of faithfullnes
s constraints. At the 'cognitive phonetic' level of impairment
of the nonfluent speakers, only segmental markedness constraints
are usually active, and therefore become dominant if faithfullnes
s constraints are lowered. The paper argues specifically
against a reranking among the family of markedness constraints,
as a representation of aphasic deficits, primarily because
allowing for this would lead to boundless overgeneration
and would fail to capture the systematicity and the general
adherence to mother-tongue phonotactics observed in aphasic
speech.

Comments: Published in Linguistics in the Netherlands 2004 21, 146-157.
Keywords: aphasia, cluster reduction, levels
Areas: Phonology,Psycholinguistics
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1041