Constraint Reranking Research Articles

Constraint reranking in diachronic OT: binary-feet and word-minimum phenomena in Austronesian

AbstractLanguages throughout the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian exhibit a range of sound changes which all appear to be triggered by the presence of a schwa in an open penultimate syllable. These changes are gemination of the final-syllable onset, deletion of penultimate schwa in three-or-more syllable words, and the shift of schwa to a full vowel in open penultimate syllables only. The changes are analyzed as a product of drift, whereby changes in daughter languages are motivated by some property of the proto-language. In this case, it is argued that schwa was a zero-mora vowel in Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, and that these changes worked to add a mora to a word which would otherwise contain a degenerate single-mora foot. The observed changes are then analyzed as a product of constraint promotion modeled in Diachronic Optimality Theory, whereby constraint movement over time may explain historical sound change. In the case of Malayo-Polynesian, it is shown that the promotion of the Binary Foot constraint (Ft-Bin) can explain all three of the attested schwa-triggered sound changes.

Emerging grammars in contemporary Yoruba phonology

AbstractThis article provides a description and an Optimality Theory (OT) analysis of contact-induced changes and variation in contemporary Yoruba syllable structure. The article claims that a major diachronic change has occurred in the syllable structure of Yoruba phonology due to its continued contact with English, resulting in the invention, preservation, and hypercorrection of clusters and codas. I characterize this change in terms of OT constraint re-ranking (Miglio and Moren 2003) and assess the resulting synchronic variation against the indexed constraint approach of Itô and Mester (1995a, b, 1999), the ranked-winners approach of Coetzee (2004), the partial-order co-phonology of Anttila (1997), and the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model of Goldwater and Johnson (2003). I show that none of these approaches is able to account independently for the categorical, gradient, and lexically conditioned variation that characterize the contemporary Yoruba syllable structure, but rather that a MaxEnt model augmented with lexical indexation is the most economical model that fits the Yoruba data accurately.

On the treatment of super-heavy syllables in Arabic Dialects: an Optimality Theoretic approach to historical typology

This study provides a historical typological Optimality Theoretic analysis of the treatment of potential super-heavy syllables in six Arabic varieties: Hijazi, Egyptian, Emirati, Kuwaiti, Algerian, and Palestinian. The analysis in this study uses the same violable OT constraints for all languages, and the differences between the grammars are represented by the order in which the constraints are ranked relative to one another. The similarities and differences between these varieties are examined from the point of view of one approach to historical OT (Cho 1998), which states that individual pairs of constraints may be ranked or unranked in relation to one another, one operation at a time, meaning that switching the order of two constraints takes two steps historically. According to Cho (1998, 45), “each step of a sound change should be viewed as a change in the ranking of constraints.” Cho’s approach in detecting the historical typological differences between varieties by counting the steps of constraint reranking is compatible with a common approach to historical linguistics. Specifically, Wichmann et al. (2010) provide a quantitative method for determining the geographic homeland of a group of related languages, which takes into account a simple linguistic-difference metric and the geographic distance between the languages. Using constraint reranking in place of Wichmann et al.’s linguistic-difference metric to calculate the homeland of Arabic dialects results in an area around Hijaz as the homeland of Arabic dialects, since Hijazi, Egyptian and Emirati dialects form a cluster of geographically close, but linguistically diverse dialects.

Emphasis Harmony in Arabic: A Critical Assessment of Feature-Geometric and Optimality-Theoretic Approaches

This overview article examines vowel-consonant harmony, specifically emphatic harmony (also referred to as pharyngealization, velarization, or uvularization), which is found in Semitic languages. It provides a comprehensive overview of emphasis harmony in Arabic dialects from feature-geometric and optimality-theoretic perspectives. From the feature geometric account, emphatic consonants are considered as a natural class within the guttural group that has the [pharyngeal] or [RTR] ‘retracted tongue root’ feature. This view has been questioned and challenged recently by some researchers who argue for the exclusion of emphatics from the guttural group. The different arguments discussed in this paper show that researchers cannot reach a consensus regarding which consonants belong to the guttural group and which features are shared between these consonants. This paper shows that studies adopting an optimality-theoretic perspective provide a more comprehensive view of emphasis harmony and its fundamental aspects, namely, directional spreading and blocking, spread from secondary emphatic /r/ and labialization. However, this paper reaches two main conclusions. Firstly, unlike feature geometry, optimality theory can provide a clearer picture of emphasis harmony in an accurate and detailed way, which does not only clarify the process in one Arabic dialect but also describe the differences between dialects due to the merit of (re)ranking of constraints. Secondly, emphasis harmony is different from one Arabic dialect to another regarding its direction, involvement of emphatic /r/, and labialization. These differences between dialects indicate that emphasis harmony is not an absolute phenomenon.

Hebrew stress: Back to the future

The paper addresses historical changes in the stress system of Hebrew, attending to the difference between Biblical Hebrew (script-based) and contemporary Hebrew (attested), and predicting the system of post-Hebrew; on the basis of experimental evidence and words from the periphery of the lexicon, it is predicted that the stress system of post-Hebrew will be similar to that of Biblical Hebrew. The predicted change from contemporary Hebrew to post-Hebrew is attributed to a combination of two factors: the inconsistency of the present system, and its incompliance with universal principles. The changes are addressed in terms of constraint reranking within the framework of Optimality Theory.

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.

Brazilian Portuguese noun phrases: An optimality theoretic perspective

In this paper we examine the nominal system in Brazilian Portuguese (BrP), a challenge to cross-linguistic studies which rely on the generalization that a language that has indefinites should not have bare nouns. BrP has bare singulars, bare plurals, singular and plural indefinites. We examine the behavior of these phrases, mostly in object position of episodic predicates, and propose that each has a different semantics. The nominal system of BrP can be successfully explained, we argue, within the bi-directional Optimality Theory (biOT) theoretical framework developed by Hendriks et al. (2010). This approach allows us to describe and explain patterns of competition, and accounts for language variation by constraint reranking. For BrP, we propose the synchronic coexistence of two grammars: bare plurals appear in the formal variety of BrP that maintains plural agreement, and bare singulars appear in informal spoken BrP, along with plural definites and indefinites that lack plural agreement on the noun. Under this analysis, BPs denote inclusive plurals, while BSs get a non-atomic semantics that covers both mass and plural interpretations.

Learning in Harmonic Serialism and the necessity of a richer base

This paper reassesses the hypothesis that early phonotactic learning of constraint-based grammars relies on the Identity Map – i.e. it uses observed surface forms as the inputs which cause errors and drive learning via constraint reranking. We argue that this approach's success is closely tied to Optimality Theory's fully parallel grammatical evaluation. In the constraint-based derivational framework of Harmonic Serialism (HS; McCarthy 2000, 2007b), reliance on observed surface forms as inputs can block the discovery of ‘hidden rankings’ between markedness constraints, preventing the learner from discovering a restrictive grammar. This paper illustrates the problem, using a pattern of positional vowel restrictions in Punu (Kwenzi Mikala 1980), and considers the role of various learning assumptions. We conclude that hidden rankings are a fundamental obstacle to restrictive error-driven learning in any HS-like framework, and that learning in such frameworks inevitably requires consideration of some unattested surface forms as inputs, even at the earliest learning stages.

Selective lexicon optimization

Phonological generalizations that are not absolute, but rather statistic, are a traditional problem for formal phonological theory. This paper gives an example of such a phenomenon and then proposes how such a skewed lexical distribution can be understood in terms of language learning in optimality theory. If lexicon optimization is extended minimally so as to incorporate the fact that the learner is confronted with (random, phonetic) variation, individual words may change, in order to start satisfying lower ranked markedness constraints. If sufficient words have undergone such a change, this may eventually lead to constraint reranking and therefore grammatical change.

Galician geada: In defense of underspecification in Optimality Theory

In Galician geada a voiced velar fricative or approximant surfaces as a voiceless fricative in all contexts except post-nasally, e.g., pega [péxa] ⿿magpie⿿ (non-geada dialects [péɣa]) vs. longo [lóſgo] ⿿long⿿. Although geada seems to be a rather basic phonological problem, existing analyses are complex. This paper shows that the analysis becomes quite straightforward once the connection of geada with voiced obstruent alternations is recognized. The proposed account obviates the need to resort to controversial mechanisms such as constraint conjunction and sheds light into the allophonic realizations of voiced obstruents. One crucial aspect of voiced obstruent allophones in Galician is their predictability and their underspecification for continuancy. Underspecification is argued to be compatible with Optimality Theory, as long as the underspecified input is not stipulated, but derived from the constraints and constraint ranking. In Galician the phonological system reveals the need for a three-way contrast in obstruents: [⿿continuant], [+continuant] and underspecified [continuant]. The findings about voiced obstruents have consequences for NC heterosyllabic clusters, showing that there is no voicing requirement at stake, rather a continuancy one, according to which voiced obstruents must be [⿿continuant] after nasals. Only voiced obstruents agree in continuancy with nasals, because only voiced obstruents are underspecified for continuancy. Constraint reranking accounts for dialectal variation.

Optimality theory and historical phonology: an example from nasal harmony in Mundurukú

This paper offers an account of diachronic changes in nasal harmony in Mundurukú, a Tupian language from Brazil. It attempts to show that the Optimality Theory provides new ways of accounting for sound change, other than constraint re-ranking. A comparison of Mundurukú and Kuruaya's modern systems points out that the source system, Proto-Mundurukú, had similar properties to those currently observed in Kuruaya. In particular, nasal spread targets were voiced stops and sonorants, whereas voiceless obstruents were transparent. This system was developed into another in Pre-Mundurukú, because new contrasts were introduced in the language, turning obstruents into opaque segments, thus blocking nasalization. Formal OT account of both cases relies on restricting harmony constraints, as shown by the relative chronology that gave rise to Mundurukú's modern system. In addition, this study discusses the consequences of this change to synchronic grammar, and how it explains the process' irregularities.

Representation on the Diachronic Change of English kn-cluster in Optimality Theory

In Optimality Theory (OT: McCarthy and Prince 1993, Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004), sound change is accounted for by constraint reranking. However, it does not properly show the ``gradual`` aspect of a diachronic change, though the unranking process is introduced for variation e.g. [knou] > [knou, nou] > [nou] (Cho 1998). Following Oh (2002), this paper proposes an alternative approach to the representation of historical sound change within the OT framework, on the basis of the sound change of know ([knou] > [hnou] > [nou] > [nou]) in Early Modern English (Dobson 1968). To show the gradual changes of [k], MAX, *VL NAS, IDENT [cont], and *σ[kn- constraints are interacted with each other. To display the gradual change of frequency among variants, the meaning of dotted lines is reinterpreted as weak domination contrary to that of straight lines as strong domination, based on Oh (2002). This paper concludes that gradual diachronic changes can be fully represented within the framework of OT through a series of unranking, reranking and ranking tools.

On the Ungrammaticality of Remnant Movement in the Derivation of Greenberg's Universal 20

We propose an analysis that derives Cinque's (2005) typology of linear orders involving a demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun through four Optimality Theory constraints requiring leftward alignment of these items. We show that remnant movement is ungrammatical whenever it produces universally suboptimal alignments, compared with remnant-movement-free structures. Any movement is permitted, but only the best alignment configurations surface as grammatical. We also show that Cinque's original analysis must encode the structural derivations of all attested orders as parametric values of the associated languages. Our analysis need not make similar structural stipulations, as the different attested structures emerge from constraint reranking.

Quantity in Old Norse and modern peninsular North Germanic

This article discusses the transition from a system with contrastive, segmental quantity in Old Norse into the present day system characterizing most Norwegian and Swedish dialects, where stressed syllables are obligatorily bimoraic. Starting with variation within East Norwegian, two intermediate varieties between Old Norse and the modern system are identified, and the four varieties are then related to each other by means of constraint reranking within an Optimality Theory analysis. A full factorial typology based on the four constraints involved is then developed. This renders four possible intermediate stages between Old Norse and the modern system, of which two are attested in East Norwegian. When the scope subsequently is widened to all varieties of Norwegian and Swedish, it is shown that all the intermediate varieties predicted by the analysis are attested. More importantly, no other varieties than those predicted seem to exist, even if such varieties can be construed. This suggests that the grammar developed to account for the changes not only is empirically adequate, but also has explanatory value.

Comments on Jäger “Anything is nothing is something”: on the diachrony of polarity types of indefinites

This response focuses on two synchronic and two diachronic issues raised by Agnes Jager’s contribution to this volume. On the synchronic front, we take a closer look at the limits of the featural underspecification approach adopted by Jager, arguing for the need to draw a featural distinction between “ordinary” indefinites and positive polarity items, and also highlighting that the [affective] feature appears to play a rather central role not only in the domain of indefinites, but also beyond. In the diachronic domain, we briefly take issue with the feasibility of constraint reranking as an explanation for change, and then turn to a consideration of how a reinterpretation of Roberts and Roussou’s (2003) analysis of “increasing negativity” may be captured in terms of an Agree-based system (cf. Biberauer and Roberts 2010b). Like Jager’s proposed system, this alternative does not predict that indefinite-related developments should always be unidirectional, as has sometimes been supposed (cf. i.a. also Hoeksema 2010).

Formalizing creole sound change

This article examines sound change in French Lexifier Creoles and the neutralization of contrast involving the feature [round]; secondary concerns include the nature of diachronically related inputs, base richness and decreolization. Phonological restructuring is described in an Optimality Theoretic grammar distinguishing between perceptual, declarative and procedural strata. Base richness holds only at the declarative stratum, as input to the perceptual and procedural strata are constrained by experience and feature licensing, respectively. Explanation of phonological restructuring centers on the perception grammar, where constraints refer to the parsing of experiential input. In the incipient creole, neutralization of contrast predicated by [round] is initially attributed to substrate grammatical transfer, reflecting first language attenuation. The possibility of creole-specific learning or attenuation to second language contrasts is also addressed and shown to lead to distinct output scenarios, depending upon the reranking of constraints under each stratum. Crucially, reranking at either the declarative or procedural strata is dependent upon learning at the perceptual stratum; rankings that do not mirror those of either the lexifier or substrate lead to output variability, the frequency of which is hypothesized to frame the eventual stabilization of representations.

Optimality Theoretic Analysis of Non-Rhoticity in English

The paper intends to describe various rhotic phenomena within a unified phonological framework of Optimality Theory. This description encompasses “standard” rhotic phenomena, such as linking and intrusive r. Additionally both hyper- and hypo-rhoticity are discussed. The paper serves primarily two points. First, it proves practical workability of constraint mechanism, as proposed by Optimality Theory. Second, it presents an integrated account of seemingly unrelated phonological facts observed in various accents of English. The paper discusses also previous accounts of rhoticity in English in connection with an attempt of presenting solid evidence for the choice of underlying forms. Furthermore two competing theoretical descriptions of rhotic insertions (epenthesis vs. gliding/spreading) are compared and evaluated. Finally, the spreading account is shown to be formally superior to the anti-hiatus approach. Moreover, the paper demonstrates a way in which r-liaison might be incorporated in the synchronic grammar of non-rhotic accents. Simply put, r-liaison could be perceived as another instantiation of VSPREAD conspiracy, where vowels tend to spread their melodic content onto the following segments. The OT machinery was also employed to account for the differences between various subtypes of non-rhotic accents, in terms of re-ranking of several constraints. The peculiar phenomena of hyper-rhoticity have, too, been demonstrated to fit the proposal.

Motives for Language Change (review)

Reviewed by: Motives for language change Marc Pierce Raymond Hickey , ed. Motives for language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. Pp. ix + 286. US$65.00 (hardcover). This book, a Festschrift in honour of Roger Lass, contains 15 papers covering a wide range of subjects, from the role of the speaker in language change to processes in new dialect formation. The book is divided into six sections, and there is also a brief introduction by the editor, which offers a brief historiographical perspective on the study of language change and describes the contents of the book, as well as an index. The first section, "The phenomenon of language change", consists of two papers. In "On change in 'E-language' ", Peter Matthews raises a number of questions regarding the Chomskyan distinction between "I-language" and "E-language" (roughly, the idiolect and "external linguistic production", to borrow a definition from Lightfoot 1999:66) and [End Page 72] the modelling of change in its terms. Frederick New meyer then turns to an old and still-difficult problem, in his "Formal and functional motivations for language change". Issues discussed here include whether a formal account of language change really "explains" anything, and the sometimes rather loose links between a functional explanation and the data it is meant to account for. The second section, "Linguistic models and language change", contains four papers. In "Metaphors, models and language change", Jean Aitchison concentrates on the use of metaphors in shaping the study of language change (cf. Lass 1997). She seeks to understand why particular metaphors associated with language change have arisen and whether such metaphors (e.g., trees, waves/ripples, games, buildings) have "helped or hindered our understanding of language" (p. 40). David Denison's "Log(ist)ic and simplistic S-curves" discusses the use of S-curves in historical linguistics; his arguments are illustrated with data drawn from the history of English. The title of Richard Hogg's paper, "Regular suppletion", seems to be an oxymoron, as suppletion is normally assumed to be irregular by definition. Hogg argues that suppletion can sometimes in fact be regular, or even cause regularity, and supports his claims with examples like English went, where suppletion has won out over regularity, and English be, where suppletion has led to "the creation of a new regular inflection" (p. 80). The final paper in this section, "On not explaining language change: Optimality Theory and the Great Vowel Shift", by April McMahon, is another in a series of works by McMahon critically examining the use of Optimality Theory in the study of language change (e.g., McMahon 2000). McMahon rejects the use of constraint reranking to model language change (the only such formal device available to OT, given that all constraints are universal), calling it "descriptive at best, fortuitous at worst, and post hoc either way" (p. 93). Section III, "Grammaticalisation", opens with David Lightfoot's "Grammaticalisation: Cause or effect". The status of grammaticalisation remains controversial; while some historical linguists appear happy to rely on its principles in their analyses, others categorically reject grammaticalisation as an explanatory principle (cf. Haspelmath 1999, Janda 2001, and Joseph 2001 for some relevant discussion). Lightfoot reviews a number of changes to the modal auxiliary verbs in English, but proposes "local causes" for them, instead of "invoking any general tendency to grammaticalise as an explanatory force" (p. 107). The next paper, "From subjectification to intersubjectification", is by one of the most prominent scholars of grammaticalisation, Elizabeth Closs Traugott (cf. Hopper and Traugott 2003). Here Traugott argues persuasively that there is a unidirectional tendency for intersubjectification to develop from subjectification, and supports this claim with evidence from the history of English. The fourth section, "The social context for language change", consists of one paper, "On the role of the speaker in language change", by James Milroy. Milroy discusses both internal and external factors in language change, and then examines certain developments in African-American Vernacular English as spoken in Detroit which, in his view, can only be adequately accounted for by reference to social factors. Section V, "Contact-based explanations", contains four papers, beginning with "The quest for the most 'parsimonious' explanations: Endogeny vs. contact revisted", by Markku Filppula. Filppula...

Duke-of-York Derivations in Polish

This article challenges the principle of strict parallelism in Optimality Theory by providing evidence that Duke-of-York derivations, deemed to be impossible by McCarthy (2002), exist in phonology. An analysis of two independent fragments of Polish phonology, chain shifts in velar palatalization and labial fission, shows multiple Duke-of-York effects because segment inventory constraints posit conflicting requirements for the well-formedness of outputs at different depths of derivation. It is concluded that Optimality Theory must permit constraint reranking and admit three derivational levels: two lexical levels and one postlexical level.

OCP Effects in Catalan Cliticization

In Catalan, sequences of sibilants are never pronounced as such. In most contexts all varieties coincide in the «strategies» used to avoid these sequences, namely epenthesis or deletion. Variation is only found in the domain of pronominal clitics (but not with other types of clitics). One source of variation is accounted for by decomposing a general constraint into two specific ones, which implies partial constraint reranking. The other source of variation, which involves a case of apparent opacity, is explained through an Output-Output constraint that makes reference to paradigmatic relations.