| ROA: | 428 |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Initial and Final States: Theoretical Implications and Experimental Explorations of Richness of the Base |
| Authors: | Paul Smolensky, Lisa Davidson, Peter Jusczyk |
| Comment: | 51 pages. To appear as Chapter 16, |
| Length: | 51 |
| Abstract: | The Initial and Final State: Theoretical Implications and Empirical Explorations of Richness of the Base Paul Smolensky, Lisa Davidson, and Peter Jusczyk Johns Hopkins University One of the more elusive aspects of Optimality Theory, the Richness of the Base principle asserts that all regular language-particular patterns are imposed by the grammar on its outputs, with no corresponding structure present in the inputs to the grammar. A theoretical consequence for the final state of the grammar of a language lacking X is that markedness constraints M prohibiting X must outrank faithfulness constraints F demanding preservation of X in the input/output mapping. Frequently no explicit evidence for this final ranking is provided by the grammar, since there is often no need to posit X in any underlying forms. Thus a further consequence is that if such a final state is to be learnable, the ranking M >> F must be imposed by the learning process, and already be present in the initial state of the grammar. In this paper we present empirical paradigms we are developing to assess these predictions of Richness of the Base. INITIAL STATE. Infants from 4.5 to 20 months of age were presented triples of syllables of the form 'A B AB' in which 'AB' was either a faithful concatenation of A and B, or one in which a markedness-reducing sound change had occurred. Under the hypothesis that infants prefer stimuli which conform to their grammar, and the interpretation /A + B/ -> [AB], the prediction of Richness of the Base is that sound-change stimuli should be prefered over faithful but marked stimuli. This was confirmed by the Headturn Preference Procedure for children at 4.5, 10 and 20 months, although no significant difference was found at 15 months. FINAL STATE. Adult English speakers' productions of non-English onset clusters were elicited. We sought an experimental paradigm that would induce speakers to subject non-native inputs to their English grammars, to quantitatively assess the predictions of Richness of the Base that non-English clusters would be repaired to meet the requirements of English syllable structure. In the condition that best approximated this prediction, non-English clusters divided into several groups which could be ordered according to their probability of repair. Appropriate interaction of independently motivated constraints can account for the relative markedness of different non-English clusters, suggesting a final English ranking that makes such distinctions, without apparent motivation in the English data in which none of these clusters appear. Possible analyses of how such a ranking might arise are suggested. Such 'hidden rankings' in the final state are important for pursuing the hypothesis that the initial state for L2 acquisition is the final state for L1. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | Language Acquisition,Phonology |
| Article: | Version 1 |