Faithfulness Constraints Research Articles

An Optimality Analysis of the Morphophonemic Development of Triconsonantal Verbs of Normal Jordanian Speaking Children

This study carries out an analysis using the framework of Optimality Theory to investigate the acquisition of the morphophonemics of JA triconsonantal verbs. The analyzed data consist of speech samples obtained from a picture/action naming task as well as spontaneous speech collection. The sample of the study consists of 64 normally developing children who are acquiring spoken Jordanian Arabic as their mother tongue. The participants whose ages range from 2;1 to 6 years are selected randomly from different preschools in two Jordanian cities. The major findings of the study suggest that children overcome the morphological complexity of Arabic verbs by applying a number of processes, including: cluster simplification, glottalization, and truncation. The OT analysis indicates that these processes are associated with highly-ranked markedness constraints and lower-ranked faithfulness constraints in child grammar. In addition, the root/affix asymmetry triggers unmarked patterns to emerge in the affix. Finally, the results display that children’s morphophonological abilities improve with age and that the majority of children’s morphophonological processes disappear at age six years.

Syllable Contact and Emergent Lenition in Bashkir

This study examines the syllable contact phonology of Bashkir (Kipchak, southern Urals, Russia), a language which exhibits a unique variation on general Turkic syllable contact phenomena, and proposes an Optimality Theoretic analysis, drawing on previous approaches to syllable contact in Turkic (Baertsch & Davis 2001, 2004, Gouskova 2001, 2004, Washington 2010). Bashkir desonorizes affix-initial coronal sonorants (/qullar/ --> [qul.dar]) to mandate compliance with the Syllable Contact Law (Davis, 1998). This occurs even at boundaries which would otherwise exhibit falling sonority, thereby maximizing sonority fall. Bashkir also exhibits a unique continuancy alternation pattern in desonorized affixes (taw-ðar, uram-dar, gaz-dar). This study adopts the Syllable Contact Hierarchy analysis proposed in Gouskova (2004), with ranking of relevant faithfulness constraints below all *DIST constraints mandating maximal sonority fall. It is proposed that continuancy alternations derived from a synchronically active lenition process, otherwise dominated by relevant faithfulness constraints, which emerges when unfaithfulness is forced to satisfy constraints on syllable contact.

Loanword Syllable Adaptation in Persian: An Optimality-Theoretic Account

The present paper examines the process of loanword syllable adaptation in tetrasyllabic words in Persian, within an Optimality-theoretic framework. In Persian, consonant clusters are avoided in onset position. As a result, the loanwords borrowed from other languages which have complex onsets, when introduced into Persian, are adapted to fit the syllable structure of the target language. When placed word-initially, the onset cluster is generally resolved by the insertion of an epenthetic vowel. However, this vowel epenthesis occurs in a split pattern, as it does in many other languages. In this study, following Gouskova’s (2001) proposal, we argue that this split pattern in loanword syllabic adaptation can best be explained to be an effect of the Syllable Contact Law (SCL). That is, when the two segments in the onset cluster have a rising sonority sequence, the cluster is broken up by the process of anaptyxis; while in sequences of falling sonority, the cluster is resolved through the process of prothesis. It is argued that, this pattern uniformly holds true at least as far as the dictionary-derived data in the present study are concerned. For the exceptional cases of /SN/ and /SL/ clusters—not attested in our data set, but still present and frequently referred to in the literature—we propose the addition of two positional faithfulness constraints of the DEP-V/X_Y family (Fleischhacker 2001) to our set of universal constraints to account for all the possible cases of loanword syllabic adaptation in Persian.

Optimality Theory in ESL Phonology: A Practice of Final Consonant Clusters from Vietnamese L1 Speakers

The present study aims to adopt the Optimality Theory to investigate the strategies of pronouncing the final consonant clusters in English by a group of Vietnamese L1 speakers. Vietnamese is a language without the final consonant clusters; therefore, Vietnamese ESL learners tend to have different strategies to pronounce those. Seven Vietnamese graduate students were employed to record their word-list out-loud reading. Each of the consonants occurring in their pronunciation production was considered as one token to be analyzed. The result shows that Vietnamese ESL learners employ five different strategies to generate the final consonant clusters. After that, by adopting the Optimality Theory, this study provides both faithfulness constraints and markedness constraints for each strategy with the attempt to generalize the cases of the final consonant pronunciation of Vietnamese speakers. This study is significant for ESL teachers to understand how the Vietnamese language affects the ESL learners’ final sound pronunciation

An OT Analysis of Chinese Transliterations of English Place Names

This paper focuses on the analysis of the Chinese transliterations of English place names in the Optimality Theory (OT) [1]. Three groups of monosyllabic, disyllabic and multisyllabic English place names are analyzed to represent the hierarchical ranking of both Markedness and Faithfulness constraints in terms of sound epenthesis, which is one of the most important repair strategies named the Preservation Principle [2] devised to “preserve” every source segment (or sound) of the target place names. By doing so, this paper tries to answer the question of why sound epenthesis takes place in transliterating words between languages. With the help of the established ranking of the relevant constraints, this paper explains the process of sound epenthesis formally.

The disambiguating effects of phonological exceptions in grammar

This paper explores the analytical and typological consequences of lexically-indexed constraints in Optimality Theory; namely, that the introduction of an indexed constraint by an exception can force the determination of otherwise unspecified rankings in the grammar. This “disambiguating” effect makes two important predictions. First, the typology of exceptional blocking is more complex than has been traditionally assumed: in addition to typical non-undergoing (=faithfulness-obeying) exceptions, exceptions that block a regular repair but undergo an alternative instead (referred to here as “walljumping” exceptions) are also predicted to exist. Second, the forced determination effect means that the existence of an exception determines the possibility or impossibility of other exceptional and regular patterns in the grammar. Using two exceptions to the hiatus resolution conspiracy in Mushunguli (Somali Chizigula, ISO [xma]) as a test case, I show that these predictions hold true, and demonstrate that indexed constraints allow for a unified analysis of hiatus resolution in the language. This result builds upon and strengthens prior observations made by Ito & Mester (1995) regarding the behavior of stratal faithfulness constraints, and supports a view of exceptions as clarifying and reifying agents within the grammar.

Indirect tone-prominence interaction in Kunming tone sandhi

Abstract Kunming exhibits a special kind of interaction between tone and prominence whereby the prosodic headedness is shown to play an indirect role in tone sandhi. Due to higher-ranked tonal faithfulness constraints, lower tones, which are universally unfavored in the head position, do not change to higher tones, and higher tones, which are universally unfavored in the non-head position, do not change to lower tones. Nonetheless, though the unfavored tone-(non-)head correlation does not directly trigger tone sandhi, it indirectly decides whether tone sandhi will take place. Falling tones, inter-syllabic tone segment disagreement, and tonal combinations with identical contours are marked tonal structures in the language. But not all these structures result in tone sandhi. The penalization of these structures is tied to an unfavored tone-(non-)head correlation; only when an undesired tone-(non-)head correlation is involved are the marked tonal structures penalized. The indirect tone-(non-)head interaction observed in Kunming is special but not unique to the language as a similar correlation is found in the Chinese dialects of Dongshi Hakka and Beijing Mandarin.

A Phonological Property of Syllable Structure and Economy in Urdu: An OT Account

A Phonological Property of Syllable Structure and Economy in Urdu: An OT Account

Vowel Doubling Before The Verbal Unit -Yɛ [jɛ] In Asante Twi

This paper offers a derivational account of [ jɛ ], and establishes the motivation for vowel doubling before [ jɛ ] in some past and perfect verb stems in Asante Twi. The paper identifies ‘avoidance of an independent high vowel syllable’ as the prosodic condition that motivates the formation of the VVjɛ subunit in these verb stems. What begins as an attempt to, optionally, resolve a violation of this prosodic condition at the stem final position results in a violation of it stem-medially. A vowel is doubled to avert the violation of this condition at the stem medial position. Vowel doubling feeds the phonological processes that derive the jɛ subunit of these verb stems. There is alternation in verb stems; the forms with ...VVjɛ ending is one of three different permissible outputs in Asante Twi. A constraint-based account identifies four free ranking constraints as responsible for the alternation in these verb stems. These constraints organize into three subhierarchies that select the three different output forms of a verb stem. Interaction among the four constraints within the three subhierarchies is guided by the ranking schemas: Markedness constraints >> Faithfulness constraints, Faithfulness constraints >> Markedness constraints and Segmental/featural constraints >> Prosodic constraints. The arrangement of these constraints into the first schema selects a verb stem with the …VVjɛ ending over the other permissible outputs.

Truncation in message-oriented phonology: a case study using Korean vocative truncation

AbstractThis paper analyzes the vocative truncation pattern in Korean from the viewpoint of Message-Oriented Phonology (MOP), which capitalizes on the idea that sound patterns are governed by a principle that makes message transfer effective. In the traditional naming pattern, Korean first names consist of a generation marker and a unique portion, and the order between these two elements alternates between generations. To derive vocative forms, the generation marker is truncated, and the suffixal [(j)a] is attached to the unique portion. We argue that MOP naturally predicts this type of truncation. As the generation marker is shared by all the members of the same generation, the generation marker is highly predictable and hence does not reduce uncertainty about the intended message. To achieve effective communication, predictable portions are deleted. Our analysis implies that MOP is relevant not only to phonetic implementation patterns, but also to morphophonological patterns. It also provides support for MOP based on data from a non-Indo-European language. Finally, we aim to integrate insights of MOP with a more formal proposal like Optimality Theory, by relating the predictability of a contrast to the ranking of the faithfulness constraint that it protects, following the spirit of the P-map hypothesis.

An Optimality Analysis and Treatment of Phonological Disorders in the Speech of Jordanian Children: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study of a Jordanian child with phonological speech disorders. It seeks to investigate functional phonological disorders and their treatment among Jordanian children within an Optimality Theoretic (OT) perspective. It aims to provide treatment for children’s speech errors within a constraint-based system. The analysis of the data identifies seven error patterns in the child’s productions, namely: fronting, lateralization, stopping, devoicing, de-emphasization, syllable deletion and cluster reduction. Furthermore, OT is employed at the end of the study as a guideline to select the priority of treatment goals by demoting responsible markedness constraints below faithfulness constraints.

Tonal polarity in Sylheti in the context of noun faithfulness

The extant literature (Smith, 2000a,b, 2001, 2002) on differences between nouns versus verbs in phonology has shown that nouns enjoy a privileged status in exhibiting phonological contrasts and processes at the expense of verbal domains. In this paper, we show from original work on Sylheti tones that verbs exhibit exceptionally marked tonal polarity and dominant suffixes which are not seen in nouns. This does not lead to more contrasting patterns in nouns but nouns are faithful. Noun faithfulness can be taken care of by a general faithfulness constraints. Verbs however, need a conjoined markedness and faithfulness constriant ranked higher than the general Faithfulness and Markedness constraints, showing the presence of a putative marked structure in verbs than in nouns.

Output-Drivenness and Partial Phonological Features

Tesar (2014) develops the notion of output-drivenness, provides guarantees that Optimality Theory grammars satisfy it, and demonstrates its learnability implications. This article discusses the extension of Tesar’s theory to a representational framework with partial phonological features. It considers a hierarchy of notions of output-drivenness of increasing strength that can be defined within this extended framework. It determines the strongest notion of output-drivenness that holds in the case of partial features. And it shows that the learnability implications discussed by Tesar carry over to a framework with partial features only if feature undefinedness is effectively treated by identity faithfulness constraints as an additional feature value.

Positional licensing, asymmetric trade-offs and gradient constraints in Harmonic Grammar

In Harmonic Grammar, positional licensing interacts with faithfulness constraints in pathological ways: spreading a feature to a licensing position to satisfy positional licensing can incur many faithfulness violations, and if there are sufficiently many such violations, they gang up to block spreading. This problem is solved if positional licensing is recast as a positive constraint that rewards licensed features in proportion to the number of positions they are associated with, thereby countering faithfulness's multiple violations. This proposal provides support for positive constraints, calls into question arguments against gradient constraints and lays the groundwork for a sound theory of positional licensing in Harmonic Grammar.

A note on phonological similarity in Tesar’s (2014) theory of output-drivenness

Tesar’s (Output-Driven Phonology: Theory and Learning, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 2014) notion of output-drivenness is an attempt at characterizing non-opaque phonological mappings in terms of a notion of phonological similarity between underlying and surface levels. Tesar defines phonological similarity concretely in terms of segment strings and correspondence relations. Magri (2017, Journal of Logic, Language, and Information) instead defines similarity axiomatically through an inequality on faithfulness constraint violations. This paper studies the formal properties of the latter axiomatic notion of similarity. In particular, it shows that Tesar’s concrete definition of similarity satisfies Magri’s axiomatization in terms of faithfulness constraints. The theory of output-drivenness reconstructed in Magri (2017, Journal of Logic, Language, and Information) thus subsumes Tesar’s (Output-Driven Phonology: Theory and Learning, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 2014) original theory as a special case.

An Optimality Analysis and Treatment of Phonological Disorders in the Speech of Jordanian Children: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study of a Jordanian child with phonological speech disorders. It seeks to investigate functional phonological disorders and their treatment among Jordanian children within an Optimality Theoretic (OT) perspective. It aims to provide treatment for children’s speech errors within a constraint-based system. The analysis of the data identifies seven error patterns in the child’s productions, namely: fronting, lateralization, stopping, devoicing, de-emphasization, syllable deletion and cluster reduction. Furthermore, OT is employed at the end of the study as a guideline to select the priority of treatment goals by demoting responsible markedness constraints below faithfulness constraints.

Drawing the krtań: Laryngeal alternations in Polish

Polish exhibits the cross-linguistically common processes of final devoicing and voice assimilation. Notably, these target not only obstruents and obstruent clusters, but also certain obstruent-sonorant clusters. This paper argues for an analysis in Harmonic Serialism where sonorants acquire laryngeal nodes, thereby becoming susceptible to the same constraints that act on obstruents. There is an asymmetry between OS#O clusters, which show assimilation, and O#SO clusters, which do not. The analysis captures this asymmetry with positional faithfulness constraints on word-initial sonorants. The analysis also straightforwardly models other patterns in Polish and neatly captures a dialectal difference between Warsaw and Cracow Polish with a single constraint reranking.

Idempotency, Output-Drivenness and the Faithfulness Triangle Inequality: Some Consequences of McCarthy’s (2003) Categoricity Generalization

Idempotency requires any phonotactically licit forms to be faithfully realized. Output-drivenness requires any discrepancies between underlying and output forms to be driven exclusively by phonotactics. These formal notions are relevant for phonological theory (they capture counter-feeding and counter-bleeding opacity) and play a crucial role in learnability. Tesar (Output-driven phonology: theory and learning. Cambridge studies in linguistics, 2013) and Magri (J of Linguistics, 2017) provide tight guarantees for OT output-drivenness and idempotency through conditions on the faithfulness constraints. This paper derives analogous faithfulness conditions for HG idempotency and output-drivenness and develops an intuitive interpretation of the various OT and HG faithfulness conditions thus obtained. The intuition is that faithfulness constraints measure the phonological distance between underlying and output forms. They should thus comply with a crucial axiom of the definition of distance, namely that any side of a triangle is shorter than the sum of the other two sides. This intuition leads to a faithfulness triangle inequality which is shown to be equivalent to the faithfulness conditions for idempotency and output-drivenness. These equivalences hold under various assumptions, crucially including McCarthy’s (Phonology 20(1):75–138, 2003b) generalization that (faithfulness) constraints are all categorical.

Against Root Faithfulness in Cupeño Stress

This paper develops a new, optimality-theoretic analysis of word-level stress assignment in Cupeño (Takic, Uto-Aztecan). I argue that primary stress is assigned to the leftmost lexically accented (i.e. stress-preferring) morpheme, else to the word's left edge. I contend that this analysis is simpler and better explains the Cupeño data than previous accounts, which assume that special faithfulness constraints privilege the accentual properties of roots over those of other affixes. The typological implications of this renanalysis of Cupeño stress are then discussed; without empirical support from Cupeño, it is suggested that "root faithfulness" plays no role in determining word stress in lexical accent systems cross-linguistically.

An Optimality Analysis of Malay Loanwords in Japanese

This study aimed to examine and explain the phonology of Malay loanwords in Japanese using Optimality Theory. The analysis was based on secondary data extracted from the Senyum magazine published in Malaysia that utilises Japanese language in its writing. The relevant data which was selected manually, was then analysed and explained using a constraints-based approach of Optimality Theory. This article focuses on vowel lengthening and epenthesis repair strategies that occur during the borrowing process from Malay to Japanese. The vowel lengthening repair strategy followed by vowel epenthesis are evoked from the syllable structure of Japanese, particularly the coda condition. The word that ends with /CVC/ (Consonant+ar/or/ur) will be changed to /CV:CV/ (Consonant+ a:ɾɯ/ o:ɾɯ/ ɯ:ɾɯ). This kind of loanword adaptation process will undergo vowel lengthening and the coda consonant will resyllabified as an onset of the following syllable. This study has suggested a set of markedness and faithfulness constraints that are hierarchically ranked in the grammar. The interaction between the constraints has successfully been accounted for the phonology of loanword adaptation in Japanese. The increase in the number of Japanese in Malaysia since the implementation of Malaysia My Second Home programme has led to a wider exposure of Malay words to the Japanese. Therefore, this research will not only benefit linguists, it will also enhance the Malaysian society’s understanding of Japanese pronunciation as it differs from the Malay phonology. It will help to eliminate the confusion that may occur during conversation between Japanese and Malays and vice versa.