Think about:
How does this proposal differ from Kahn's?
Are there different structures? Different assumptions? Are there
data that one theory can account for that the other can not?
M Jan 21
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day -- no class
W Jan 23
Covered:
Kahn (1976): Cross-linguistic predictions about
possible syllable structures and syllabification rules
Clements & Keyser (1983): Their formal framework and
theory of universal aspects of syllable structure
Think about: How does C&K's
treatment of English
syllabification differ from Kahn's? What advantages and
disadvantages can you identify? Can you think of any problems or
areas that their theory does not address?
F Jan 25
Covered: Clements & Keyser (1983):
How their theory
handles universal and language-particular aspects of syllable
structure
Their analysis of English syllables (to be continued)
Reading: No new reading. Look at the
Turkish and
Ancient Greek data sets and propose
an analysis for each within Clements and Keyser's framework.
Be thinking about article presentations. Time is passing.
M Jan 28
Covered: Clements & Keyser (1983):
Their analysis of English syllables -- PSSCs and NSSCs
How their theory would account for the
Turkish data (to be wrapped up next time)
Covered: Wrap-up of the Turkish problem under the
Clements & Keyser system; introduction to "prosodic categories"
as background to the Itô paper
Reading: No new reading has been assigned (so no
new reading reaction is due). Next time we will talk about
Itô (1989), section 1 -- we will
take a look at the theoretical framework that is used in sections 2
and 3 to account for epenthesis and other syllable-related phenomena.
Be thinking about: How does Itô explain the location
of the epenthetic vowel in languages that, unlike Ponapean and Axininca,
have no Coda Filter? (What determines whether a stray C will become an
onset or a coda in the Arabic dialects discussed in section 3?)
W Feb 6
Covered: Itô (1989), section 2 wrap-up
Reading: No new reading; we will finish discussing
section 3 of Itô (1989) next time
Reminder: Ancient Greek problem set due by Friday.
F Feb 8
Covered: Itô (1989), section 3 wrap-up. General
overview of the first three papers: What have we seen that any
theory of syllabification must account for? What are the most
important contributions of the three articles toward our understanding
of syllable structure and syllabification?
Reading: Read the handout entitled "Introduction to
Optimality Theory" for Monday's class. No reading report is due, but
be ready to discuss the handout in class.
Covered: McCarthy & Prince (1993), Ch 2 section 2.2
Reading: No new reading for next time. We'll talk about
how the four language types {CV}, {CV, V}, {CV, CVC}, and {CV, V, CVC, VC}
are predicted in section 2.2, and we'll discuss section 2.3.
Think about:
For next time, work out a constraint ranking for Cairene
Arabic that takes the input /?ul-t-l-u/ and chooses [?u.lit.lu] as the
winner. You can ignore the "Iraqi-style" competitor [?ul.ti.lu] for now,
but be able to show why other plausible possibilities lose.
M Feb 18
Covered: McCarthy & Prince (1993), Ch 2 section 2.2
(specifically, how this theory predicts that languages either forbid
or tolerate codas, but never require them)
Reading: No new reading for next time. We'll talk about
how the OT approach from the reading accounts for universal patterns
related to onsets. Then we'll look at the Arabic example you were
asked to think about on Friday.
W Feb 20
Covered: McCarthy & Prince (1993), Ch 2 section 2.2
(specifically, how this theory predicts that languages either require
onsets or allow onsetless syllables, but never forbid onsets)
Think about:
How does their analysis account for what Itô
(1989) called Directionality effects? What are the outstanding issues
that they raise?
F Feb 22
Covered: Mester & Padgett (1994)
Reading: No new reading for next time; we'll wrap up
Unit I (Basic Syllabification).
Think about: The last two readings
have used OT to account for cross-linguistic patterns involving, at
most, CVC syllables. What other kinds of syllables have we seen
discussed in the papers we have read? What kinds of OT constraints
will we need to propose in order to explain the syllabification
"options" chosen by different languages? What are the effects of
different rankings of these constraints?
M Feb 25
Covered: Wrap-up of Unit I; additional syllable-structure
constraints for an OT analysis of basic syllabification
Reading: No new reading for next time. We'll have an
introductory class for the Unit II readings.
Unit II: Syllable-internal structure
W Feb 27
Covered: Intro to Unit II: Italian stress, Chinese tone
patterns, and structure between segments and syllables
Covered: Evidence for moras vs. skeletal slots from
Broselow, section 2. Points covered: Onset-rime asymmetries.
Reading: No new reading. Review reading-guide handout and
be prepared to discuss more mora-vs.-skeleton arguments.
F Mar 8
Covered: Wrap-up of Broselow (1995): Mora-counting;
failures of "moraic consistency". (Start thinking about how the
problems that Broselow raises might go away if we had violable
constraints instead of universal inviolable principles.)
Covered: Zec (1988), first part:
"Syllabic" and "moraic" segments and the sonority scale
Reading: No new reading. Be ready to talk about how
the language examples discussed in the second half of today's
reading relate to the overall theory that we were discussing in class.
W Mar 20
Covered: Zec (1988), first part:
Language types I, II, III and the nature of the evidence that shows
what type each language discussed belongs to
Reading: No new reading. We'll follow up some questions
that people have raised: [s] in Italian; the implications of glottalized
sonorants for the sonority scale; how to state requirements like the
Onset Principle (or the OT constraint ONSET)
in a moraic theory of syllable structure.
W Mar 27
Covered: Zec (1988), final issues: Is the "exceptional"
behavior of Kwakwala glottalized sonorants, [s] in Italian, etc. best
described as a matter of sonority? Or should we imagine that other
kinds of restrictions exist too (like Ito's Coda Filter on Place)?
Term papers: Be sure to sign up for an appointment to
discuss your topic ideas with me by next week.
Covered: Broselow, Chen, & Huffman (1997), second part
(section 5)
Reading:
No new reading. Friday's class will be a group discussion of the
OT Latin problem; a chance for you to
practice making ranking arguments and setting up an OT analysis.
F Apr 5
Covered: Latin glides in OT
Reading:
No new reading. On Monday we will finish discussing section 5 of
Broselow, Chen, & Huffman (1997). Then we will take a look at the
various ways that sonority is important in syllable structure.
Unit III: Sonority and syllabification
M Apr 8
Covered:
Wrap-up of Broselow, Chen, & Huffman (1997), second part
(section 5)
Introduction to Unit III: Overview of sonority-related
effects in syllable structure (PDF version of
handout available; some of the points
raised on the handout were not covered today but will be covered soon)
Reading:
No new reading. Yohei will give an in-class presentation of a paper
by Rubach & Booij (1990) on syllabification in Polish.
W Apr 10
Covered:
Rubach & Booij (1990) on syllabification in Polish:
the role of the Sonority Sequencing Generalization in determining
allowable clusters, despite exceptional behavior at word edges
Class discussion of a possible Minimal Sonority Distance
for Polish, in addition to the SSG
Covered: Baertsch (1998): the general theory of
[ *M1/x + *M2/x ] constraints and how they account
for patterns in allowable onset clusters (Icelandic discussion
to be continued in the first half of class on Monday)
Announcements: Detailed information about final grade
calculations has been added to the course
description page. Also, the Greek problem set (#6) has been
extended another week; problem set #7 will be available soon as
well.
M Apr 15
Covered: Baertsch (1998) on Icelandic; more generally, the
use of sonority scales and sonority distance requirements in defining
acceptable clusters
Reading:
No new reading; we will discuss
Gouskova (2002) next time. (If you
haven't yet submitted a reading reaction for this paper, you have
another chance.)
Announcements:
Student term-paper presentations start next week.
Sign-up sheets will be available Wednesday in class. Be
sure to meet with me soon if you would like to talk about your progress
on your term paper. Also note: Class attendance during presentation
days (4/22-5/1) is required; unexcused absences will be treated as
missing short reading reactions.
W Apr 17
Covered: Gouskova (2002): general overview of theory
Reading:
No new reading; we will wrap up the discussion of Gouskova next time,
and see what final conclusions we can draw about syllable structure.
Announcements:
All five of your "assignments" (see course
description page) must be turned in by Fri 5/3 at 5pm.
F Apr 19
Covered: Gouskova (2002): language evidence
Reading:
No new reading; final presentations start next week!
Final presentation schedule Remember: Attendance at presentations counts as a short
reading reaction