Description
TitleLexicon Optimization in Languages without Alternations
PublisherEuropean Studies Research Institute, University of Salford
Date Created1996
Extent32 p.
DescriptionLanguages with few or no alternations have never fitted smoothly into rule-based theories with a commitment to lexical economy. To derive rich surface inventories from more parsimonious underlying inventories, it was necessary to postulate abstract underlying forms even for morphemes which only ever surfaced with one particular allophone. Even if lexical economy was demoted as a paramount consideration, the occurrence of alternations in one small corner of the grammar, such as in loanwords, still forced the linguist back to the abstract and rule-based analysis. This was so because the alternative, a set of phonotactic statements about the surface distribution of allophones, could not alone produce alternations: only rules could do that, and once the grammar included rules, they could be made use of for other purposes, including the non-alternating forms. Output-based theories are tailor-made for language of this type. Surface-true generalizations can be trivially dealt with. When alternations are encountered, they can be understood as the direct result of the pressure to observe these surface constraints, and no special rules are needed.
Using data from vowel systems in several Chinese dialects, Mandarin palatal consonants, and Chaoyang nasalization, it is argued that abstract underlying representations and rules that produce surface forms are highly inefficient for non-alternating systems, in that they frequently require both rules that derive A from B, and rules that derive B from A, in the same contexts. It is proposed that language is learnt on the basis of core data, and that non-core data - language games, poetry, speech errors, onomatopoeia, loanwords - can be used as a probe to investigate the nature of the underlying representations. This paper finds inconclusive evidence for abstract underlying representations, and concludes that the balance of the evidence suggests that learners acquire something rather close to what they hear, unless information from alternations or paradigms forces them to do otherwise. These findings provide support for Lexicon Optimization (Prince and Smolensky 1993).
NoteThe definitive version of this paper was published in Current Trends in Phonology: Models and Methods (1996)
NoteYip, M. (1996). Lexical optimization in languages without alterations. In J. Durand, & B. Laks (Eds.) Current trends in phonology: Models and methods (pp. 354-385). Salford, Manchester: European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford.
NoteThis work was made possible in part by a generous grant from the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation
GenreConference Paper or Lecture
LanguageEnglish
CollectionRutgers Optimality Archive
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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