Optimality Theory

In this chapter, we explore the implications of Optimality Theory (OT) for speech-language pathology.. But at the time of writing, the most accessible readings in OT for the speech-language pathologist are to be found in Bernhardt, Gilbert, and Ingram (1996). The first part of the chapter outlines major aspects of OT, and the second part discusses application of this theory to phonological intervention, giving general guidelines and a specific case example. In its approach to the analysis of phonological patterns, OT focuses on two important aspects of any phonological system: the patterns that are impossible and the patterns that are possible. It is distinguished from most other approaches to phonology in the extreme role that is assigned to constraints: constraint: a limit on what constitutes a possible pronunciation of a word Optimality Theory uses only two mechanisms for determining the pronunciation of a word: the underlying representation of the morpheme or word (often referred to as the input), and constraints. OT does not account for differences between input and output form in terms of processes or rules but in terms of constraints.. We will make clear below exactly how constraints and rules are different, and why OT leads to a different sort of analysis than process-based approaches. Although OT has been developed only recently, it is related to a number of previous theories. Within approaches to child phonology, it combines a relational approach and an independent approach: it requires us to examine the child's pronunciations of words as reflecting the child's independent phonological system, while also focusing us on the ways that the child's system (and hence the child's pronunciation) matches or differs from the adult's system (and hence from the adult's pronunciations). It is also related to a number of earlier approaches to phonology. In the 1970s, Stampe (1973) suggested that all human beings have the same set of natural processes, and OT similarly assumes that all human beings have the same set of constraints. Hooper (1976) proposed that phonological systems should not have both processes and constraints; but she argued that processes can be used to express constraints on phonological forms. In terms of recent theories, most linguists working within an OT framework presuppose nonlinear phonology (see the chapters by Bernhardt & Stoel-Gammon, Dinnsen, and Ingram, this volume). In addition, OT has borrowed a number of assumptions from connectionist theory as laid down by psychologists (e.g. Rumelhart & …