Phonology

This course provides an introduction to phonological analysis, using primarily the tools of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 2004).  Topics will include: characterizing phonotactic distributions using constraints, assessing the typological predictions of a constraint set, analyzing alternations and allomorphy, and the learnability of constraint rankings.  We will consider a variety of sources of evidence for phonological grammars, including distributions in lexicons, experimental results, acquisition, and language change. No prior exposure to phonological analysis will be assumed, but a basic familiarity with the description of sounds (place of articulation, manner, etc.) will be helpful.