LINGUIST List 9.707

Wed May 13 1998

Books: Optimality Theory

Editor for this issue: Anita Huang <anitalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Debra M. Hardison, Optimality Theory

OPTIMAL VIEWPOINTS, Stuart Davis, Editor. 138 pp. Prepaid orders by U.S.
check or money order. $15.00 + p&h: $3.50 US, $5.00 CAN, $5.50 Other. IULC
Publications, 720 E. Atwater Ave., Bloomington, IN 47401 USA.
<iulcindiana.edu> http://php.indiana.edu/~iulc/

	This year the Indiana University Linguistics Club celebrates its
30th anniversary with the publication of _Optimal Viewpoints_ representing
current work on Optimality Theory by students, faculty and alumni of the
Department of Linguistics at Indiana University. The papers in the volume
cover phenomena of current theoretical interest in morphology, first
language acquisition, phonology and syntax. Contents are as follows:

	_The Optimal Compound: Optimality Theory and the Typology of
Synthetic Compounds_. Heather Anderson offers an OT analysis of word order
in synthetic compounds by demonstrating how the difference between VO and
OV languages with respect to synthetic compounds falls out from the
ranking of the relevant constraints in an optimality-theoretic grammar.

	_The Representation of On-glides in American English: Evidence
from Phonologically Disordered Systems_. In this OT application to
English acquisitional phonology, Jessica Barlow examines the productions
of consonant-glide clusters from several children over a period of time,
and relates her findings to the issue of whether the glide in a
consonant-glide sequence functions as part of the onset or part of the
nucleus.

	_Output Configurations in Phonology: Epenthesis and Syncope in
Cairene Arabic_. Stuart Davis and Bushra Adnan Zawaydeh examine the output
configurations created by syncope and epenthesis processes in Cairene
Arabic. In cases where the OT prediction that the output shapes of syncope
and epenthesis processes should be symmetrical is not maintained, there is
an overriding base-identity constraint that plays a key role.

	_Variation in Acquisition: An Optimal Approach_. In this paper,
Katherine Demuth shows than an OT analysis can account for multiple
optimal outputs in acquisitional phonology in terms of partially ordered
constraint rankings, or stratified domination hierarchies.

	_Topic-Oriented Null Arguments in Korean and Optimality Theory_.
Jong-Kyoo Kim offers an OT analysis of null arguments, both subject and
object arguments, in Korean based on the domination of topic-related
constraints over projection-related constraints. Kim also develops a
general pro-drop typology which reflects a differential ranking of
constraints.

	_Correspondence in Kyungsang Korean Truncation_. Seung-Hoon Shin
examines a range of data on truncated words in the Kyungsang dialect of
Korean including hypocoristics, truncated compounds, and loanword
truncation. Shin shows clear evidence that truncated words can be based on
the underlying input rather than on a fully syllabified output.

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1998 Contributors