Violable constraints in language production: Testing the transitivity assumption of optimality theory

Daniel J. Guest; Gary S. Dell; Jennifer S. Cole

doi:10.1006/jmla.1999.2679

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Violable constraints in language production: Testing the transitivity assumption of optimality theory

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Violable constraints in language production: Testing the transitivity assumption of optimality theory

Daniel J. Guest, Gary S. Dell and Jennifer S. Cole

Journal of memory and language, Vol.42(2), pp.272-299

02/01/2000

DOI: 10.1006/jmla.1999.2679

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Abstract

Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky, 1993) characterizes linguistic knowledge as a ranked set of constraints that select the best possible output form of a word given a particular input. OT assumes that constraints are ordered transitively with respect to their violability. An artificial language learning paradigm was used to test this assumption by teaching participants to pronounce words that provided evidence about three constraints affecting the stress patterns of words. The words demonstrated that the first constraint outranked the second and the second outranked the third. The relationship between the first and third could only be derived from the transitive nature of the system. Three experiments tested whether speakers could determine the stress patterns of words requiring knowledge of the relationship between these two constraints. Evidence was found for a transitively ordered constraint system as well as a system that stores commonly heard stress patterns as metrical templates.

Language Acquisition

Phonology

Stress

Language production

Optimality theory

Transitive inference

Details

Title: Subtitle: Violable constraints in language production: Testing the transitivity assumption of optimality theory
Creators: Daniel J. Guest - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Gary S. Dell - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jennifer S. Cole - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of memory and language, Vol.42(2), pp.272-299
DOI: 10.1006/jmla.1999.2679
ISSN: 0749-596X
eISSN: 1096-0821
Publisher: Elsevier
Number of pages: 28
Grant note: SBR 93-19368; SBR 98-73450 / National Science Foundation (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100000001) DC-00191; HD-21011 / National Institutes of Health (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100000002)
Language: English
Date published: 02/01/2000
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders
Record Identifier: 9985217115902771

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