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Prerequisites Aims and objectives Syllabus Assessment Reading

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Prerequisites

Honours Foundataion: Phonetics and Phonology.

Aims and objectives

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the central premises of Optimality Theory (OT) and the conceptual and empirical results that follow from its application to phonology, particularly to prosodic structure.

Syllabus

• Week 1
  • Lecture: Basic principles of OT
  • Tutorial: Reading tableaux, ranking constraints
  • Reading: Kager, Ch 1, sections 1-4


• Week 2
  • Lecture: Constraint interaction
  • Tutorial: Spanish spirantization
  • Reading: Kager, Ch 1, sections 5-8


• Week 3
  • Lecture: Syllable structure and OT
  • Tutorial: Syllables in two Arabic dialects
  • Reading: Kager, Ch 3


• Week 4
  • Lecture: Interlude - Representations in prosodic theory
  • Tutorial: Somali accent; Manam stress
  • Reading: Roca and Johnson, Chs 13-14
• Week 5
  • Lecture: Metrical phonology in OT
  • Tutorial: Warlpiri stress
  • Reading: Kager Ch 4


• Week 6

  Reading week; no class

  
  

• Week 7
  • Lecture: Prosodic morphology in OT
  • Tutorial: Mangarayi reduplication
  • Reading: Kager Ch 5


• Week 8
  • Lecture: Output-to-Output correspondence
  • Tutorial: Belfast English dentalisation
  • Reading: Kager Ch 6


• Week 9
  • Lecture: Constraints and derivations
  • Tutorial: Komi compensatory lengthening
  • Reading: Kager Ch 9


• Week 10
  • Lecture: Phonological acquisition and OT
  • Tutorial: Child data
  • Reading: Barlow & Gierut (1999)

Activities

The course follows the lecture-tutorial format. The tutorials will consist of data analysis exercises and discussions.

Assessment

Essay on an approved topic (100%)

Reading

Most of the reading assignments are from Kager (1999). There are multiple copies of this textbook in the short loan section of the library. Assigned reading for the week is to be done before the lecture (except for Week 1). Other reading materials will be made available in the Linguistics Department Common Room. Please return the materials to the filing cabinet promptly after use.

References

• Barlow, J., & Gierut, J. A. (1999). Optimality theory in phonological acquisition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42, 1482-1498.
• Kager, R. (1999). Optimality theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• McCarthy, J. (2002). A thematic guide to Optimality Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Prince, A. & Smolensky, P. (1993/2004). Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Roca, I., & Johnson, W. (1999). A course in phonology. Oxford: Blackwell.

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