Course description and requirements
Phonological Theory II is open to students who have completed either LING 523 (Phonological Theory I) or LING 200 (Phonology). Intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, it is a reading-intensive, seminar-style course in which students discuss and critique research papers in phonological theory. The topics covered in this course change from year to year.
Course requirements include posting responses to the assigned readings on a Blackboard discussion forum and leading class discussion of several readings. Each student will also complete a draft version and a final version of a term paper.
Content of the course (Fall 2010) -- "Variation and Gradience in Optimality Theory"
Phonological phenomena in the real world are not always categorical, all-or-nothing effects. We will explore some of the ways in which this complexity has been investigated and modeled in Optimality Theory and related phonological models.
Topics will include some or all of the following:
- How can variation ("free variation," "variable rules") be modeled?
- How do sociolinguistic factors interface with the phonological grammar?
- Native speakers sometimes have gradient judgments -- things may not be absolutely grammatical or ungrammatical, but somewhere in between. Should this be modeled? How?
- What role is played by factors such as: word or form frequency, structure of the lexicon, stochastic constraint evaluation?
- Do various alternatives to the structure of the classic OT framework, such as weighted constraints or serial evaluation, add anything to our understanding of variable or gradient effects?
Reading reactions posting policy
- For each assigned reading, please contribute one main post
to the relevant discussion
forum on Blackboard
- Your main post may be submitted as a response to another relevant post if one already exists
- In addition to your main post, please feel free to contribute responses to other students' posts as well
- Deadline for your main post:
- M 9am for a M discussion
- W 9am for a W discussion