Optimality Theory and Language Change

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Optimality Theory And Language Change: Overview and Theoretical Issues

   1. Remarks on Optimality Theory and Language Change

      • D. Eric Holt

      Pages 1-30

   2. The Odds of Eternal Optimization in Optimality Theory

      • Paul Boersma

      Pages 31-65

   3. On Re-Ranking and Explanatory Adequacy in a Constraint-Based Theory of Phonological Change

      • Randall Gess

      Pages 67-90

   4. The Actuation Problem in Optimality Theory

      • Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, Richard M. Hogg

      Pages 91-119

   5. When History Doesn’t Repeat Itself

      • April McMahon

      Pages 121-142

   6. Language Change Without Constraint Reranking

      • Charles Reiss

      Pages 143-168

3. Case Studies of Phonological Change

   1. English Vowel Shifts and ‘Optimal’ Diphthongs

      • Donka Minkova, Robert Stockwell

      Pages 169-190

   2. Merger Avoidance and Lexical Reconstruction

      • Viola Miglio, Bruce Morén

      Pages 191-228

   3. The Emergence of Quantity-Sensitivity in Latin

      • Haike Jacobs

      Pages 229-247

   4. Some Interactions Between Word, Foot, and Syllable Structure in the History of Spanish

      • Conxita Lleó

      Pages 249-283

   5. The Emergence of Palatal Sonorants and Alternating Diphthongs in Old Spanish

      • D. Eric Holt

      Pages 285-305

   6. The Emergence of Contrastive Palatalization in Russian

      • Jaye Padgett

      Pages 307-335

4. Case Studies of Syntactic Change

   1. How to Rank Constraints

      • Benjamin Slade

      Pages 337-385

   2. Historical Changes in Verb-Second and Null Subjects from Old to Modern French

      • Larry LaFond

      Pages 387-412

   3. Bibliography on Optimality Theory and Language Change

      • Randall Gess

      Pages 413-441

5. Back Matter

   Pages 443-462

   PDF

Optimality Theory and Language Change:
-discusses many optimization and linguistic issues in great detail;
-treats the history of a variety of languages, including English, French, Germanic, Galician/Portuguese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish;
-shows that the application of OT allows for innovative and improved analyses;
-allows researchers that appeal to OT to see the connections of their (usually synchronic) work with diachronic studies;
-contains a complete bibliography on Optimality Theory and language change.

This volume may be used as one of the texts in courses on historical phonology or syntax that treat these topics from generative approaches or that give a general survey of various frameworks of research into these areas. Likewise, the volume may serve as a text for courses in phonology, syntax and Optimality Theory that have a component dedicated to extensions of linguistic theory to historical change. It is of interest for historical linguists, researchers into Optimality Theory and linguistic theory, and for phonologists and syntacticians with an interest in historical change.

• Diphthong
• Language Change
• Syntax
• diachron
• language
• phonology
• subject
• synchron
• syntactic

• University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA

  D. Eric Holt

Policies and ethics