Suggested pre-requisite: some knowledge of Optimality Theory or Clàudia Pons-Moll’s course in Week 1.

Constraint-based models of phonology such as Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004) posit that phonological grammars consist of phonotactic constraints and faithfulness constraints and that derivations are computed in one step. Opaque interactions have proven difficult to model, resulting in a large number of proposed theoretical mechanisms. This class introduces/reviews Optimality Theory and various approaches to capturing opaque interactions.

Level: Intermediate/advanced