LSA.113 Introduction to Optimality Theory

John J. McCarthy

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

jmccarthy (at-sign) linguist.umass.edu

For information about the course, see the Institute website: http://web.mit.edu/lsa2005/courses/schedules.html.

Warning: Some of this material will change before it’s actually used in class. Compare the revision numbers (at the bottom of the page) to determine whether you’ve got an out-of-date version of the handout.

The textbook is: McCarthy, John J. (2002) A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory (ATGtOT). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. You can buy it at the MIT Coop in Kendall Square, or, if you’re desperate, you can read it in bits and pieces at http://print.google.com. It is strongly recommended that you make the corrections described on the errata page.

Linked files is are in Adobe Acrobat format. In the unlikely event that you don’t have it yet, the free Adobe reader can be installed from here.

Handouts

Handout #0: Course syllabus (2pp.)

Handout #1: Background, origins, and overview of OT (13pp.)

Reading assignments:

ATGtOT pp. 1-65.

Prince, Alan and Smolensky, Paul (2003) Optimality Theory in phonology. In Oxford Encyclopedia of Linguistics, ed. William Frawley, pp. xxx-xxx. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Available at http://ling.rutgers.edu/gamma/oiel.pdf.]

Handout #2: Inventories and distribution in OT (7pp.)

Handout #2 supplement (2pp.)

Recently asked questions #1 (3pp.)

Reading assignment:

ATGtOT pp. 66-91.

Chapter 9 of Prince, Alan and Smolensky, Paul (2004) Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Malden, Mass., and Oxford, UK: Blackwell. http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/537-0802/537-0802-PRINCE-3-0.PDF.

Handout #3: Modes of constraint interaction (blocking, triggering, conspiracies) (15pp.)

Recently asked questions #2 (2pp.)

Reading assignment:

ATGtOT pp. 91-108.

Chapters 3 and 4 of Prince and Smolensky (2004), http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/537-0802/537-0802-PRINCE-1-0.PDF.

Handout #4: Typology and universals (36pp.)

Reading assignment:

ATGtOT pp. 108-137.

Chapter 6 of Prince and Smolensky (2004), http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/537-0802/537-0802-PRINCE-2-0.PDF.

Handout #5: Learning (12pp.)

Reading assignments:

Sections 1-3 of Tesar, Bruce and Smolensky, Paul (1998) Learnability in Optimality Theory. Linguistic Inquiry 29, 229-68. http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/155-1196/roa-155-tesar-2.pdf

Sections 1-4 of Prince, Alan and Tesar, Bruce (2004) Learning phonotactic distributions. In Constraints in Phonological Acquisition, ed. René Kager, Joe Pater, and Wim Zonneveld, pp. 245-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/353-1099/353-1099-PRINCE-0-0.PDF

And if you’re really ambitious: Tesar, Bruce and Prince, Alan (2004) Using phonotactics to learn phonological alternations. In CLS 39, Part II: The Panels. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/620-1003/620-TESAR-0-0.PDF