Course plan
Joe, John and Gaja will each teach a section of the course.
Joe’s topic: Segmental phonology in Optimality Theory. Local and non-local assimilation (and some dissimilation), functional grounding of constraints, the challenges of accounting for long-distance spreading in OT, progress with HG and HS.
John’s topic: John will present the empirical and theoretical foundations for the autosegmental-metrical model of intonation, as first developed by Pierrehumbert and Beckman in the 1980s (Pierrehumbert, 1980; Pierrehumbert & Beckman, 1986; Beckman & Pierrehumbert, 1986; see Jun, 2005, 2014, and Ladd, 2006, for a broader cross-linguistic perspective, and for a challenge to this approach see Braun, et al. (2005). Tune-text and prosody-syntax alignment will also be discussed.
Gaja’s topic: The focus of this section will be on variation, gradience, and exceptions in phonology. We will discuss a number of theoretical and computational accounts of these phenomena and consider a wide range of available evidence, including experimental and corpus-based studies.
Requirements
In each section, you’ll present a paper of your choosing (we’ll provide a list of possibilities), and do two homework assignments. You’ll also be expected to do assigned readings before class so as to participate fully in discussion.
You’ll also be preparing term paper, and presenting it in the final week of class. In order to get started early, we’ll ask for a short prospectus, which you will discuss with at least one of us.