| ROA: | 158 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Phonetically Driven Phonology: The Role of Optimality Theory and Inductive Grounding |
| Authors: | Bruce Hayes |
| Comment: | File marked |
| Length: | 37 |
| Abstract: | As research in Optimality Theory moves beyond the largely prosodic subject matter with which it began, a wider variety of constraints is being considered. For instance, Pater (1995, 1996) shows that many phonological effects emerge from the "NC" constraint, which specifically bans voicelessness after nasals. Pater suggests that this constraint emerges from phonetic principles; i.e. that it is "grounded", in the sense of Archangeli and Pulleyblank (1994). More generally, it appears from work of Pater, Steriade, and others that a great number of phonological constraints are phonetically grounded. Thus, in principle, by accessing the patterning of phonetics, we should be able to increase the explanatory force of phonological theory. For this to happen, however, we need an explicit account of how the constraints of the formal phonological grammar are related to phonetics; specifically, to principles of articulatory ease and perceptual distinctness. To this end I propose a theory of *inductive grounding*, which consists of an algorithm by which the language learner could access the knowledge gained from articulation and perception, and form from it the appropriate set of phonological constraints. The empirical focus of the paper is the phonology of obstruent voicing. I apply inductive grounding to a set of phonetic values obtained by aerodynamic modeling. From this simulation, I derive the set of constraints that characteristically govern voicing in natural languages, giving rise to postnasal voicing, intervocalic voicing, devoicing in obstruent clusters, and place-related voicing effects. Implications of inductive grounding for phonological acquisition and for feature theory are discussed. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |