What is Phonology?

Phonology Pronunciation Spelling

cat + -s “kats” cats


dog + -s “dawgz” dogs


rose + -s “roziz” roses
[These slides are missing most

kiss + -s “kisiz” why? kisses
examples and discussion from
class …] How do you pronounce a phonology doesn’t care
about the spelling
sequence of morphemes? (that’s just applied
Especially, how & why do you morphology)
fix up the pronunciation at the
seams between morphemes?
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What is Phonology? What is Phonology?

Pronunciation Spelling “Trisyllabic Shortening” in English


nap + -t “næpt” napped divine  divinity serene  serenity
futile  futility supreme  supremity


nab + -t “næbd” nabbed senile  senility obscene  obscenity
satire  satirical obese  *obesity


nod + -t “nadid” nodded decide  decision
wild  wilderness


knot + -t “natid” knotted
Actually, these are pronounced identically: (and similarly for other vowels)
na
Id
thanks to the English “flapping” rule
(similarly: ladder/latter, bedding/betting)

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Successive Fixups
What is Phonology? for Phonology


A function twixt head and lip

Chomsky & Halle (1968)
Morphology underlying Phonological surface Articulation


Stepwise refinement of a single form
(head) phonemes mapping phones (mouth)

How to handle “resignation” example?
resign ree-ZIYN
resign + -ation reh-zihg-NAY-shun
input (I)


What class of functions is allowed? output (O)


Differs from one language to next


That is, O = f(I) = g3(g2(g1(I)))


Often complicated, but not arbitrary

Function composition (e.g., transducer composition)


Comp Sci: How to compute, invert, learn?

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 example courtesy of K. Crosswhite
Optimality Theory
How to Give Orders for Phonology


Directions version: successive fixup (derivation)

Prince & Smolensky (1993)


Break two eggs into a medium mixing bowl.


Alternative to successive fixups


Remove this tab first.


On the last day of each month, come to this office

Successive winnowing of candidate set
and pay your rent.


Rules version: successive winnowing


No running in the house is allowed. (optimization)


All dogs must be on a leash.


Rent must be paid by the first day of each month.


In rules version, describe what a good solution would input
look like, plus a search procedure for finding the best output
solution). Where else have we seen this?
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Optimality Theory
Optimality Theory “Tableau”
for Phonology


= candidate violates constraint twice (weight 2)

input (I)
constraint would prefer A, but only output (O)
allowed to break tie among B,D,E

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When do we prune back to

best paths? Why does order matter?

Optimality Theory: At each intermediate stage


Noisy channel: After adding up all weights


Optimality Theory: Each machine (FSA) can choose only
among outputs that previous machines liked best


Noisy channel: Each machine (FST) alters the output
produced by previous machines

output (O) output (O)

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 Final Remark on OT Optimality Theory “Tableau”

Repeated best-paths only works for a single input

Better to build full FST for I  O (invertible)
Can do this e.g. if every constraint is binary:
Assigns each candidate either 1 star (“bad”) or 0 stars
(“good”)

input (I)
output (O) all surviving candidates violate constraint 3,
so we can’t eliminate any

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