Phonological acquisition and disorders:
An optimality theoretic perspective
Daniel A. Dinnsen, Chancellor’s Professor of
Linguistics, Indiana University
A series of lectures will highlight current research on
phonological acquisition and disorders from the perspective
of optimality theory. After establishing some of the
fundamentals of optimality theory and acquisition, one of
the main topics to be taken up is opacity effects in
developing phonologies. Opacity effects are generalizations
that are either not surface-true or not surface-apparent.
The characterization of these phenomena has posed a
challenge for optimality theory generally, but the
emergence of opaque generalizations in developing
phonologies is especially challenging for theories of
acquisition given that these generalizations would not have
been observable in the primary linguistic data to which
children are exposed. A range of opacity effects and
different theoretical proposals for dealing with them will
be presented. Other topics will include how optimality
theory might handle apparent differences between developing
and fully developed phonologies and how optimality theory
and applied research can benefit one another.
Much of the work to be presented in the lectures will be
drawn from the findings of the research team of the
Learnability Project at Indiana University (
http://www.indiana.edu/~sndlrng/)
and will serve as a preview of the team’s forthcoming
book, Optimality theory, phonological acquisition and
disorders, edited by D. Dinnsen & J. Gierut, published
by Equinox in their new series Advances in Optimality
Theory (
http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=153).