Re: Metrical Stress, Feet, etc.

From:    Shreyas Sampat <shreyas@...>
> In Optimality Theory, a set of universal *constraints* mandate that the
> ends of a word coincide with the ends of a metrical foot. (this means it
> is bad if a word has a foot break in it or is too small to fill a foot.)
> But other constraints (like one that maintains length contrasts) can
> force violations of the foot-alignment if they are ranked correctly.
>
> OT rules.
Oh really.  What do you say about opacity?  Do you favor Sympathy
Theory, or Comparative Markedness, or Targeted Constraints? All
of these attempts to answer this problem have been incredibly
convoluted.

Don't get me wrong: I like the idea of a two-level mapping of input
and ouput.  It's just that no one has yet been able to come up with
a way to do that.  If you're going for OT, Stratal OT is probably
your best bet.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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