Nothing is better than being unfaithful in multiple ways

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Weighted Constraints and Faithfulness Cumulativity in Phonological Acquisition

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)This article was first published in Proceedings of the 33rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Developement, ed. J. Chandlee et al., Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press

An opacity-tolerant conspiracy in phonological acquisition

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Developmental shifts in phonological strength relations

National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Comparative markedness and induced opacity

Results are reported from a descriptive and experimental study that was intended to evaluate comparative markedness (McCarthy 2002, 2003) as an amendment to optimality theory. Two children (aged 4;3 and 4;11) with strikingly similar, delayed phonologies presented with two independent, interacting error patterns of special interest, i.e., Deaffrication ([tIn] 'chin') and Consonant Harmony ([$\text{g}$ↄ$\text{g}$] 'dog') in a feeding interaction ([kik] 'cheek'). Both children were enrolled in a counterbalanced treatment study employing a multiple base-line single-subject experimental design, which was intended to induce a grandfather effect in one case ([dↄ$\text{g}$] 'dog' and [kik] 'cheek') and a counterfeeding interaction in the other ([$\text{g}$ↄ$\text{g}$] 'dog' and [tik] 'cheek'). The results were largely supportive of comparative markedness, although some anomalies were observed. The clinical implications of these results are also explored.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

On the interaction of deaffrication and consonant harmony

Error patterns in children's phonological development are often described as simplifying processes that can interact with one another with different consequences. Some interactions limit the applicability of an error pattern, and others extend it to more words. Theories predict that error patterns interact to their full potential. While specific interactions have been documented for certain pairs of processes, no developmental study has shown that the range of typologically predicted interactions occurs for those processes. To determine whether this anomaly is an accidental gap or a systematic peculiarity of particular error patterns, two commonly occurring processes were considered, namely Deaffrication and Consonant Harmony. Results are reported from a cross-sectional and longitudinal study of 12 children (age 3;0 - 5;0) with functional phonological delays. Three interaction types were attested to varying degrees. The longitudinal results further instantiated the typology and revealed a characteristic trajectory of change. Implications of these findings are explored.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Cumulative faithfulness effects in phonology

One of the hallmarks of optimality theory (OT) is strict domination: multiple low-ranked constraint violations cannot gang up on a higher-ranked constraint. However, such cumulative interactions have been shown to occur. This thesis examines the subset of cumulative interactions called cumulative faithfulness effects (CFEs). CFEs occur when a single unfaithful mapping is allowed in a word, but multiple unfaithful mappings are not. In languages with CFEs, violations of multiple lower-ranked faithfulness constraints gang up on a single higher-ranked constraint to eliminate outputs that are unfaithful in multiple ways, while allowing singly-unfaithful outputs to survive. The key generalization is that for languages in which multiple repair processes could be used to repair a marked element, the least unfaithful repair process is chosen. The fact that these effects are attested in a variety of languages and language domains presents a problem for OT, which cannot account for them. Moreover, CFEs produce transparent outputs and resemble conspiracies, two phonological phenomena for which OT is typically adept at accounting.The thesis thus has three goals. The first is descriptive: I seek to determine under what circumstances CFEs occur. A typology of CFEs is proposed, illustrating that there are at least three different ways in which faithfulness constraints can behave cumulatively. The second goal is to determine in what phonological domains CFEs occur. It is shown that CFEs are a pervasive phenomenon; examples are provided from fully-developed languages, first-language acquisition, and loanword adaptation. Finally, the third goal is analytical: what is the best constraint-based analysis for CFEs? Because OT cannot account for them, either some addendum to OT must be proposed, or some other constraint-based theory must be appealed to. Harmonic grammar (HG), a constraint-based theory in which each constraint carries a weight and candidates are evaluated based on the cumulative weight of their violations, is argued to provide the best analysis of CFEs. Multiple low-weight constraints may thus combine to overcome a single higher-weight constraint. Moreover, HG can account not only for those cases in which multiply-unfaithful outputs are disallowed, but also for cases in which multiply-unfaithful outputs occur.Ph.D.The author received financial support of grants from the National Institutes of Health to Indiana University: NIH-DC00012 and DC-001694

Comparative Markedness and Induced Opacity

Results are reported from a descriptive and experimental study that was intended to evaluate comparative markedness (McCarthy 2002, 2003) as an amendment to optimality theory. Two children (aged 4;3 and 4;11) with strikingly similar, delayed phonologies presented with two independent, interacting error patterns of special interest, i.e., Deaffrication ([tɪn] 'chin') and Consonant Harmony ([ɡɔɡ] 'dog') in a feeding interaction ([kik] cheek). Both children were enrolled in a counterbalanced treatment study employing a multiple base-line single-subject experimental design, which was intended to induce a grandfather effect in one case ([dɔɡ] 'dog' and [kik] 'cheek') and a counterfeeding interaction in the other ([ɡɔɡ] 'dog' and [tik] 'cheek'). The results were largely supportive of comparative markedness, although some anomalies were observed. The clinical implications of these results are also explored