Violable is variable: Optimality theory and linguistic variation
Violable is variable: Optimality theory and linguistic variation
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违反就是变量：最优性理论和语言变异
DOI：
10.1017/s0954394500001952
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发表时间：
1997
影响因子：
1
通讯作者：
Gregory R. Guy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gregory R. Guy
优化理论（McCarthy & Prince, 1993; Prince & Smolensky, 1993）被认为是一种基于约束的音系学理论，其中每种语言的音系事实是由约束的普遍清单的语言特定顺序来解释的。表达理想（即最佳）语音状态的约束评估可能的候选形式，选择最佳输出。任何约束都可能被曲面形式违反，如果它被更高级别的约束覆盖；约束的有序序列提供了约束效应的弱量化。在OT中，可变性通过不同的约束顺序来处理。该模型在几个重要方面类似于Labov（1969）和Cedergren and Sankoff（1974）的变量规则模型（VR）。在VR中，可变约束表达了理想的语音状态，当不被其他约束覆盖时，这些语音状态在表面上可变地实现；约束是概率量化的。本文对OT模型和VR模型进行了比较，认为VR模型在理论和实证上都具有优势：VR中的约束效应稳定、透明、可学习。此外，约束效应的概率处理允许VR成功地模拟多次违反单个约束导致形式可能性累积减少的情况；这类病例不能在OT中得到有效治疗。
ABSTRACT Optimality theory (OT) (McCarthy & Prince, 1993; Prince & Smolensky, 1993) has been proposed as a constraint-based theory of phonology in which the phonological facts of each language are accounted for by a language-specific ordering of a universal inventory of constraints. The constraints, expressing desirable (i.e., optimal) phonological states, evaluate possible candidate forms, selecting the optimal output. Any constraint may be violated by a surface form if it is overridden by a higherranked constraint; the ordinal sequence of constraints provides a weak quantification of constraint effects. Variability has been treated within OT by varying constraint orders. This model is analogous in several important respects to the variable rule model (VR) of Labov (1969) and Cedergren and Sankoff (1974). In VR, variable constraints express desirable phonological states which are variably realized on the surface, when not overridden by other constraints; constraints are probabilistically quantified. This article compares the OT and VR models, arguing that the VR model is superior on theoretical and empirical grounds: constraint effects in VR are stable, transparent, and learnable. Moreover, the probabilistic treatment of constraint effects allows VR to model successfully cases in which multiple violations of a single constraint lead to a cumulative reduction in likelihood of a form; such cases cannot be efficiently treated in OT.