LIGN 111 - Will Styler

# Constraint-based Phonology

### Will Styler - LIGN 111

---

### Today's Plan

- Conspiracies

- Optimality Theory

- Cats, Dogs, and Dishes

- Strengths and Weaknesses of OT

---

### So far, we’ve been using SPE-style Generative Phonology

- Underlying forms are transformed into surface forms by a series of ordered rules.

- Variation is either conditioned (changes by rules) or speakers screwing up

- We've expanded it a bit with a nice feature theory

- ... and I've added dashes of laboratory phonology

---

### We define rules...

- **Voicing Assimilation:** [-son] -> [-voice] / [-voice]__#

- **Vowel Epenthesis:** ∅ -> [-front,-back] / [+coronal,+strident]__[+coronal,+strident]#

---

### Then we apply them...

<center>
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<table class="tg">
  <tr>
    <th class="tg-0lax">Underlying Form</th>
    <th class="tg-1wig">/kæt + z/</th>
    <th class="tg-1wig">/dag + z/</th>
    <th class="tg-1wig">/dɪʃ + z/</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">V Epenthesis</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">--</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">--</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">| dɪʃɪz |</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">Voicing Assim.</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">| kæts |</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">--</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">--</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">Surface Form</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">[kæts]</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">[dagz]</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">[dɪʃɪz]</td>
  </tr>
</table>
</center>

---

### This approach has a lot of benefits

- It’s relatively simple

- You find a UR, you make a rule, and you get a surface form
    
- It’s been around for 50 years

- It's been well studied and expanded upon
    - (Nearly) everybody still knows it and can use it
    - It’s the Phonological Lingua Franca
    
- Folks in other fields are likely still using SPE-style phonology

- Other theories are often based on its shortcomings

- Even the haters have to respect
    
- It's quick to deploy

- Just write down a couple of rules
    
---

### It's the best way to start out in Phonology
    
- There's not so much 'technology' to get to your first analysis

- It often feels intuitive

- "Huh, that sound changes there"
    
- It exposes the elements of phonology that are most relevant for fieldwork/clinical work

- **Nearly everybody started off learning this way!**

---

### ... but it's not the only approach

---

### We've been seeing a lot of coda-hatred

- Some languages epenthesize vowels to create more syllables. (Yokuts!)

- Many languages try very hard to remove codas using a variety of deletion rules. (Russian)

- Some languages transform codas into other sounds.

- Some languages force codas towards sonorance (see Dark vs. Light /l/, nasal-coda-only languages)

- ... but all these processes are doing the same damned thing

---

### It's not just codas...

- By and large, languages don’t like hiatus (two vowels next to one-another)

- Most languages don’t care for huge consonant clusters

- We don’t like violating the sonority hierarchy

- Two adjacent stresses stress us out

---

### Over and over, a language will use multiple different rules to accomplish the same damned thing

---

---

### "Why don't we just talk about the things we're trying to avoid, instead of creating crazy conspiracies of rules to deal with them?!"

---

# Optimality Theory (OT)

---

## Optimality Theory

A theory of phonology which relies on ranked constraints to solve phonological problems

---

### Optimality Theory

- Developed by Prince and Smolensky in 1993. “Optimality Theory: Constraint Ranking in Generative Grammar”

- “Don’t talk about the individual rules, just talk about the preferences!”

---

### We don't need a conspiracy of rules to solve problems

- Don't worry about V Epenthesis, C Deletion and Forced Sonority

- Just say "We don’t like codas. Don’t allow those."

- "Let's find the form that's least worst"

---

### Three basic steps

- **GEN** - GENerate a list of possible forms from the underlying form

- **CON** - Rank the CONstraints which help you decide on the best ones

- **EVAL** - EVALuate the possible forms, and choose the optimal candidate

---

### Let's indulge in a fantasy

- Let's pretend I could afford to buy a house in La Jolla!

---

## We use OT when buying a house

---

### GEN in home-buying

- "Generate a list of possible candidate houses"

- Go online, or get a realtor

- Find all the houses for sale in the area

- Gather information about their characteristics

---

### CON in home-buying

- "Let's find the constraints on our purchasing and rank them"

- Everybody has the same set of possible things they *could* care about

- You decide what you want

- ... what you don't want

- ... and what's a deal-breaker

- Then rank them according to your desires

---

### Possible Constraints

- “We need two bedrooms”

- "Houses with turrets on the side look cool!"

- “We want to have a public transit commute”

- "We don't want a lawn"

- “We don't want to pay more than $350,000”

- 🤣😭

- “We don’t want an area with bad schools”

---

### * in OT means “Don’t allow this”

- \*CC would mean “No consonant clusters”

- \*VV would mean "No Hiatus"

- \*$350K+ would mean "No houses over $350k"

---

### So, we have constraints

TwoBedrooms

HasTurret

NoCommute

NoLawn

\*$350k+

GoodSchools

---

### For us...

- \*$350k+

- TwoBedroom

- NoCommute

- NoLawn

- HasTurret

- GoodSchools

---

### For somebody else...

TwoBedroom

GoodSchools

\*$350k+

NoLawn

HasTurret

NoCommute

---

### EVAL for Real Estate

- Look at all the listings, and figure out which one will be best for us!

---

<center>
<table class="tg">
  <tr>
    <th class="tg-0lax"></th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">\*$350k+</th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">TwoBedrooms</th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">NoCommute<br></th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">NoLawn<br></th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">HasTurret</th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">GoodSchools<br></th>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">House 1</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">House 2</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">House 3</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">House 4</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">House 5</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">House 6</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="fragment">
    <td class="tg-0lax">...</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
  </tr>
</table>
</center>

---

<center>
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<table class="tg">
  <tr>
    <th class="tg-0lax"></th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">\*$350k+</th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">TwoBedrooms</th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">NoCommute<br></th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">NoLawn<br></th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">HasTurret</th>
    <th class="tg-0lax">GoodSchools<br></th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">House 1</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">House 2</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-m8lr">House 3</td>
    <td class="tg-m9r4"></td>
    <td class="tg-m9r4"></td>
    <td class="tg-m9r4"></td>
    <td class="tg-m9r4"></td>
    <td class="tg-m9r4">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-m9r4">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">House 4</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-x0ce">House 5</td>
    <td class="tg-uzv5"></td>
    <td class="tg-uzv5"></td>
    <td class="tg-uzv5"></td>
    <td class="tg-uzv5"></td>
    <td class="tg-uzv5"></td>
    <td class="tg-uzv5">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">House 6</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-1wig">...</td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
    <td class="tg-0lax"></td>
  </tr>
</table>
</center>
---

### We have a house!

- ... at least, in this fantasy

---

### So, Optimality theory lets us pick the least-worst candidates from a massive set of possibilities

---

## So, uh, Phonology?

---

### GEN

- Generate EVERY POSSIBLE SURFACE FORM from the URs given

---

### CON

- *Every language shares the same set of constraints!*

- ... but rank them differently
    
- There are *markedness constraints*

- "This thing sucks, don't do that"
    
- ... and *faithfulness constraints*

- "At least *try* to be similar to the UR
    
---

### EVAL

- Count the number of times each form violates the constraints

- Violating higher-ranked constraints is more important

- When you violate a constraint which is higher ranked than another candidate's highest violation, it's a *fatal violation*.

- The 'winner' is the candidate that has the lowest-ranked first violation

---

### (There's more to it, but that's the basics!)

---

### How does this work in practice?

---

## Back to Cats, Dogs, and Dishes

---

# /kæt+z/

---

### GEN - Let's create a list of every possible surface form

- EVERY ONE OF THEM

---

### CON - Generate and rank the constraints

- \*SS: "Don't put two strident sounds next to each other"

- Agree: "Voicing should agree in adjacent consonants"

- Max: "The segments in the UR should be there on the surface"

- Dep: "Don't Epenthesize segments that weren't there"

- Ident: "Don't change segments in the underlying form"

- **Ranked in that order**

---

### EVAL - Evaluate the Candidates

---

### EVAL - Evaluate the Candidates

---

## Dogs

---

### GEN - Come up with every possible form

- ... again

---

### CON - Generate and rank the constraints

- You'll use the same constraints and rankings in all forms in the problem

- In fact, you'll use the same rankings for every form in the language!

---

### EVAL - Evaluate the Candidates

<center>
<style type="text/css">
.tg  {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;}
.tg td{font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;padding:10px 5px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;overflow:hidden;word-break:normal;border-color:black;}
.tg th{font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-weight:normal;padding:10px 5px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;overflow:hidden;word-break:normal;border-color:black;}
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.tg .tg-ov6f{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#333333;text-align:left;vertical-align:top}
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<table class="tg">
  <tr>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">/dag+z/</th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">\*SS<br></th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">AgreeVoice</th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">Max<br></th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">Dep<br></th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">Ident</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dagɪz]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dagɪs]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*<br></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">👉 [dagz]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dags]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dag]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dagi]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
</table>
</center>

---

## Dishes

---

### GEN and CON work the same

- New surface candidates, same constraints

---

### EVAL

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<table class="tg">
  <tr>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">/dɪʃ+z/</th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">\*SS<br></th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">AgreeVoice</th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">Max<br></th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">Dep<br></th>
    <th class="tg-n6l6">Ident</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">👉 [dɪʃɪz]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dɪʃɪs]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*<br></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dɪʃz]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dɪʃs]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dɪʃ]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-n6l6">[dɪʃi]</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">!\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f">\*</td>
    <td class="tg-ov6f"></td>
  </tr>
</table>
</center>

---

## OT's Strengths and Weaknesses

---

### Optimality Theory Strengths

- Magnificent for handling “conspiracies” of rules in languages

- Amazing for phonotactics

- Some types of analysis get very simple, very quickly

- It handles cross-linguistic patterns, and “rules” that show up over and over again

- Sometimes, it’s just more graceful to do it with OT

---

### Optimality Theory Weaknesses
    
- GEN makes us examine EVERY POSSIBLE CHOICE

- "Penguin" is a valid candidate for /kæt+z/

- This may be cognitively nutty

- Constraints (but not their rankings) are generally considered innate

- Acquisition gets dicey without innate constraints

- OT is rekt by counter-bleeding phenomena

- Out of the box, it’s just as bad at handling variation as SPE-style phonology

- ... but there are some interesting hacks

---

### Optimality Theory has been expanded and improved

- 'Harmonic Grammar' is a broader approach

- Quantitative and computational approaches to OT

- Doing 'Old School OT' like I've taught you is SO 1993

---

### ... but constraint-based approaches are everywhere, and with good reason!

---

### Wrapping up

- (Some) Conspiracies are real!

- Optimality Theory is amazing at handling them

- Cats, Dogs, and Dishes can be handled with constraints too

- Constraint-based phonology is a powerful tool!

---

### For Next Time

We'll work with an OT analysis!

---

<huge>Thanks!</huge>