Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism; John McCarthy; Joe Pater

Edited by

John J. McCarthy [+–]

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

John J. McCarthy is Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Dean of the Graduate School, and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of Hidden Generalizations: Phonological Opacity in Optimality Theory (Equinox 2007).

Joe Pater [+–]

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Joe Pater is Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his PhD in 1997 from McGill University, and specializes in phonological theory, phonological acquisition and learning theory

Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism introduces readers to current research in Optimality Theory that involves a reconsideration of two of Prince and Smolensky’s (1993/2004) basic architectural decisions. One is the choice of constraint ranking over the numerically weighted constraints of OT’s predecessor, Harmonic Grammar. The other is the choice of parallel evaluation over a version of OT in which the representation is changed and evaluated iteratively – Harmonic Serialism.

The contributions in this volume explore the consequences for phonological theory of adopting serial evaluation, weighted constraints, or both. Because the volume contains both introductory material and the latest research, the intended audience encompasses advanced undergraduates, graduate students and professionals in the field. Although the content is mainly phonological, the book will also be of use to researchers in OT syntax and computational linguistics.

Series: Advances in Optimality Theory

Preliminaries

Preface [+–] vii-viii

John J. McCarthy,Joe Pater FREE

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism introduces readers to current research in Optimality Theory that involves a reconsideration of two of Prince and Smolensky’s (1993/2004) basic architectural decisions. One is the choice of constraint ranking over the numerically weighted constraints of OT’s predecessor, Harmonic Grammar. The other is the choice of parallel evaluation over a version of OT in which the representation is changed and evaluated iteratively – Harmonic Serialism. The contributions in this volume explore the consequences for phonological theory of adopting serial evaluation, weighted constraints, or both. Because the volume contains both introductory material and the latest research, the intended audience encompasses advanced undergraduates, graduate students and professionals in the field. Although the content is mainly phonological, the book will also be of use to researchers in OT syntax and computational linguistics.

Part 1: Introductions to Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism

1. Universal Grammar with Weighted Constraints [+–] 1-46

Joe Pater £17.50

University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Joe Pater is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is co-editor (with J. Lidz and W. Snyder) of Oxford Handbook of Developmental Linguistics (forthcoming).

This chapter presents an extensive examination of the typological predictions of weighted constraints, and concludes that they hold considerable promise for typological modeling. Weighted constraints are often held to be unsuitable for the modeling of phonological typology, in that they overgenerate relative to the ranked constraints of Optimality Theory. In more cases than previously imagined, weighted constraints generate the same typology as ranked ones. Where weighted constraints do have greater power, this often allows them to operate with smaller constraint sets, thus potentially creating more restrictive typologies. The genuinely problematic predictions of weighted constraints are often produced in non-local constraint interactions that are also problematic in Optimality Theory. The locality restrictions imposed by Harmonic Serialism often erase differences between ranking and weighting. The paper also provides a tutorial introduction to weighted constraints and a discussion of the relationship of a categorical model of Harmonic Grammar to probabilistic ones.

2. The Theory and Practice of Harmonic Serialism [+–] 47-87

John J. McCarthy £17.50

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

This chapter explains what Harmonic Serialism is and how it differs from standard parallel Optimality Theory. Several arguments in support of Harmonic Serialism are presented

Part 2: Analysis and Typology

3. Cross-level Interactions in Harmonic Serialism [+–] 88-138

John J. McCarthy,Joe Pater,Kathryn Pruitt £17.50

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Arizona State University

Kathryn Pruitt is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University. She received her PhD from UMass Amherst in 2012. She specializes in phonological theory with emphasis on metrical structure and stress typology.

Cross-level interactions are phonological processes that make reference to multiple levels of the prosodic hierarchy, such as vowel shortening in the weak position of a foot. Cross-level interactions figure in most arguments for parallelism in Optimality Theory. This chapter demonstrates with several case studies how cross-level interactions can be analyzed in Harmonic Serialism. The key insight is that the relevant constraints may be violated in the course of the derivation, even if they are obeyed in underlying and surface forms. Cross-level interactions require parallelism only if constraints are inviolable, but that is inconsistent with a fundamental premise of Harmonic Serialism and every other version of Optimality Theory. The problems that cross-level interactions pose for serial theories with inviolable constraints are demonstrated through a review of their treatment in pre-OT constraints and repairs theories.

4. Parallelism vs. Serialism, or Constraints vs. Rules? Tongan Stress and Syllabification Revisited [+–] 139-154

Minta Elsman £17.50

Independent scholar

Minta Elsman received an MA in linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2014.

In their seminal work on Optimality Theory, Prince and Smolensky (1993/2004) contrast their OT analysis of Tongan stress and syllabification with a rule-based analysis (Poser 1985), demonstrating that while the OT analysis is consistent with both universal markednss principles and empirical observations about Tongan, the rule-based analysis ignores markedness principles and stipulates empirically unsupported rules. They conclude that the Tongan data favor the parallel architecture of OT over the serial architecture of rule-based analyses. This paper presents an Harmonic Serialist (McCarthy 2010b) analysis of Tongan, which, despite its serial implementation, is no less theoretically principled or empirically supported than the OT analysis. Given that HS and OT differ from the rule-base frameworks in their use of violable constraints, it is concluded that the ability to account for the Tongan data is determined not by the choice between parallel and serial architectures, but by the use of constraints instead of rules.

5. Serial Restrictions on Feature/Stress Interactions [+–] 155-175

Robert Staubs £17.50

Independent scholar

Robert Staubs received his PhD in 2014 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He specializes in phonological theory, learning, and models of typological frequency

This paper discusses a solution to a pathological class of predictions found in parallel Optimality Theory. In these predicted languages, featural faithfulness and positional markedness conspire to create stress systems driven by arbitrary segmental features. This is possible even if the markedness constraints are for typologically motivated interactions such as sonority-driven stress and vowel reduction. The solution described here uses the gradual nature of derivations in Harmonic Serialism. Gradualism allows the determination of stress to be separated from featural changes in a way that avoids the pathology. To preserve descriptive adequacy on the full range of sonority effects, this solution requires an enriched representation of stress, supporting recursive notions of foot structure.

6. Positional Constraints in Optimality Theory and Harmonic Grammar [+–] 176-220

Karen Jesney £17.50

University of Southern California

Karen Jesney is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern California, where her research focuses on phonological theory, phonological acquisition, and learning theory. She received his PhD in 2011 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

This paper argues that cumulative interaction of weighted constraints can allow a smaller set of more general constraints to be employed in the analysis of attested languages. The specific focus is on positional asymmetries in the licensing of marked structures. In OT, positional markedness constraints preclude the possibility of a language independently licensing a structure in multiple disjoined contexts – e.g., in onsets or in initial syllables. Basic positional faithfulness constraints can model disjunctive licensing in OT, but cannot model patterns that rely on a conjunction of contexts – e.g., cases where licensing requires being simultaneously in onset and the initial syllable. In Harmonic Grammar positional markedness constraints can model both disjunctive and conjunctive licensing patterns, thereby reducing the size of constraint set needed to capture attested natural language patterns. Case studies from Konni, Tamil and English are presented, and typological predictions are discussed.

7. Positive Constraints and Finite Goodness in Harmonic Serialism [+–] 221-235

Wendell Kimper £17.50

University of Manchester

Wendell Kimper received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011, and is currently a Lecturer at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on experimental and theoretical phonology.

This chapter explores the use of positively defined constraints, which assign rewards rather than violations. In parallel versions of Optimality Theory, positive constraints are untenable, because they fail to produce an optimum; however, within Harmonic Serialism, limitations on Gen mean that positively defined constraints are possible. While in many cases positive and negative constraints are functionally equivalent, this chapter argues that positive constraints provide superior empirical coverage in the domain of harmony processes.

8. Contexts for Epenthesis in Harmonic Serialism [+–] 236-260

Claire Moore-Cantwell £17.50

Yale University

Claire Moore-Cantwell is a Lecturer at Yale University. She received her PhD in 2015 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She specializes in phonological theory, phonological processing, and psycholinguistics.

This chapter proposes a restriction on GEN in Harmonic Serialism, which leads to the empirically correct prediction that epenthesis cannot repair metrical markedness cross-linguistically (such as stress clashes and lapses). Epenthesis as a repair to such structures constitutes an unreachable output in HS – an output which is globally optimal under some constraint set but which cannot be reached by any legal derivation.

9. Stress-epenthesis Interactions in Harmonic Serialism [+–] 261-300

Emily Elfner £17.50

McGill University

Emily Elfner is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia. She received her PhD in 2012 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on theoretical and empirical approaches to prosody and the syntax-phonology interface.

Typologically, epenthetic vowels may be treated in diverse ways by stress systems: in some languages, epenthetic vowels disturb an otherwise regular stress pattern, while in others, epenthetic vowels are treated no differently from underlying vowels. Further, epenthetic vowels may be treated non-uniformly within a single language: epenthetic vowels may bear stress in certain environments, but not others. The phonological literature has been divided as to whether stress assignment in these “opaque” languages derives from the ordering of rules for stress and epenthesis, or from the parallel interaction of violable constraints (as in a “classic” OT framework). This chapter develops an account of stress-epenthesis interactions within the framework of Harmonic Serialism, and argues that this approach, which combines serialism and optimization, better accounts for the range of patterns that are found cross-linguistically than previous accounts using strictly rule-based or parallel frameworks.

10. Compensatory and Opaque Vowel Lengthening in Harmonic Serialism [+–] 301-326

Francese Josep Torres-Tamarit £17.50

L’Université Paris 8

Francesc Torres-Tamarit is a researcher at the CNRS lab Structures Formelles du Langage in Paris 8. He received his PhD in 2012 from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and specializes in metrical phonology and phonological opacity.

This paper argues on the basis of compensatory lengthening and opaque vowel lengthening in favor of Harmonic Serialism. It is shown that Harmonic Serialism derives classic compensatory lengthening if two independently motivated proposals about the gradual nature of GEN are assumed. Namely, that syllabification is built serially in harmonically improving steps and that deletion of a coda consonant is a two-step process. These theoretical assumptions are extended to account for an opaque interaction between vowel lengthening and word-final obstruent devoicing in Friulian, as well as a more complex opaque interaction in Alsatian French between vowel lengthening and syllable-final obstruent devoicing, vowel epenthesis, and resyllabification. The paper demonstrates that Harmonic Serialism is able to accommodate particular cases of counterbleeding opacity in which syllabification is involved, and gives additional support to two hypotheses about the gradual nature of GEN: serial syllabification and deletion as a two-step process.

11. Cyclicity and Non-cyclicity in Maltese: Local Ordering of Phonology and Morphology in OT-CC [+–] 327-368

Matthew Wolf £17.50

Independent scholar

View Website

Matthew Wolf completed his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2008. He subsequently held visiting positions at Georgetown University (2008-2009) and Yale University (2009-2010), and was a post-doctoral researcher at Yale from 2010 to 2012. His work has appeared in Linguistics, Phonology, and Morphology, and he is a contributor to two other volumes in the Advances in Optimality Theory series: Modeling Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory (2010) and Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism (2015).

This chapter addresses an exception to a classic example of the cycle in phonology. In Maltese, syncope cyclically underapplies in consonant-final verb stems with object suffixes, but applies in a non-cyclic, surface-transparent manner in vowel-final verb stems. Such situations are challenging for traditional frameworks where the serial order of phonology and morphology is directly built into the modular architecture of the grammar. Instead, a satisfactory treatment requires a theory in which phonology-morphology ordering relations are chosen by the grammar with respect to potentially conflicting pairwise preferences. An analysis is given using Optimal Interleaving (OI), an extension of McCarthy’s (2007) OT with Candidate Chains (OT-CC), a framework that has this property.

Part 3: Learning

12. Learning Serial Constraint-based Grammars [+–] 369-388

Robert Staubs £17.50

Independent scholar

Robert Staubs received his PhD in 2014 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He specializes in phonological theory, learning, and models of typological frequency

This paper proposes a method for learning grammars in the general framework of Harmonic Serialism, a variant of Optimality Theory with gradual derivations. It addresses problems of structural ambiguity introduced by derivations, and is able to deal with variable as well as categorical data. Maximum Entropy serial grammars generate an unbounded number of possible derivations. By formalizing the derivational space in terms of Markov chains, probabilities over those derivations can be calculated, allowing the use of standard optimization methods for fitting the grammar model to the learning data. Learning results are provided for simplified versions of an opaque stress-epenthesis interaction, and of a variable vowel deletion process modeled after French schwa.

13. Convergence Properties of a Gradual Learning Algorithm for Harmonic Grammar [+–] 389-434

Paul Boersma,Joe Pater £17.50

University of Amsterdam

Paul Boersma is Professor of Phonetics at the University of Amsterdam.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

This paper investigates a gradual on-line learning algorithm for Harmonic Grammar. By adapting existing convergence proofs for perceptrons, it shows that for any nonvarying target language, Harmonic-Grammar learners are guaranteed to converge to an appropriate grammar, if they receive complete information about the structure of the learning data. It also prove convergences when the learner incorporates evaluation noise, as in Stochastic Optimality Theory. Computational tests of the algorithm show that it converges quickly. When learners receive incomplete information (e.g. some structure remains hidden), tests indicate that the algorithm is more likely to converge than two comparable Optimality-Theoretic learning algorithms.

End Matter

Subject Index [+–] 435-436

John J. McCarthy,Joe Pater FREE

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Language Index [+–] 437

John J. McCarthy,Joe Pater FREE

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Reviews

This volume is a welcome introduction to key questions related to Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism. Since both HG and HS are in their incipient stages, this book should be welcomed by both seasoned phonologists as well as students of phonology.
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Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism

John J. McCarthy [+–]

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Joe Pater [+–]

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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