Phonology Fest 2006

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Harmony in Optimality Theory
Rachel Walker, University of Southern California


Overview and Schedule in pdf format

June 19: Nasal Assimilation Handouts
June 20: Coronal Harmony in Kinyarwanda Handouts
June 21: Stress Sensitivity in Metaphony Handouts
June 22: Prominence and DomainsLow Handouts

Bibliography



Harmony phenomena, such as vowel harmony or consonant harmony, provide a window to exploring several fundamental issues in phonological theory. This course examines recent advances in this topic, centering on (i) what harmony reveals about Optimality Theory and conversely (ii) what Optimality Theory reveals about harmony. On the first issue, properties of harmony patterns, such as transparency, opacity, and the set of participating sounds, have led to developments in the area of Correspondence Theory, locality, feature co-occurrence constraint scales, and representations of harmonic structures. Patterns involving position sensitivity have spurred progress in characterizing positional licensing constraints. On the second issue, a core finding is that harmony is not an isolated phenomenon. Constraints that promote harmony are also involved in many other phonological patterns. This intersects with the course's investigation into the formal and functional motivations that underlie harmony, and the spectrum of their function in phonology in general.

Material under focus will include Prof. Walker's recent work on Agreement by Correspondence, spreading-based harmonies, Licensing by Agreement, and weak triggers.