Linguistics 251: Variation in Phonology
Syllabus
Assignments and readings
Software
Lecture handouts (Classes
1-20 complete; all in one zipped file)
Week 1
For Tuesday, 4/2: Andries Coetzee and Joe Pater. The place of variation in phonological theory. In Handbook of Phonological Theory, Goldsmith, Riggle and Yu (eds.).
For Thurday, 4/4:
Paul Boersma and Bruce Hayes (2001) "Empirical tests of the Gradual Learning Algorithm," Linguistic Inquiry 32: 45-86.
For the Boersma/Hayes reading, do a one-page, perhaps bullet-pointed summary of the article to hand in on Tuesday 4/9.
Week 2
For Tuesday, 4/9:
Read: Andries Coetzee (2009). An integrated grammatical/non-grammatical model of phonological variation. In Current Issues in Linguistic Interfaces. Volume 2., Kang et al. (eds.).
Do: Software exercise:
Gradual Learning Algorithm
Data file for exercise:
Anttila_data_adapted_from_Boersma.xls
To be handed in Thurday 4/11
For Thursday, 4/11:
Read: Goldwater, Sharon and Mark Johnson (2003) Learning OT constraint rankings using a Maximum Entropy model. Proceedings of the Workshop on Variation within Optimality Theory, Stockholm University, 2003.
Write a less-then-one-page summary, e.g. in bullet points, for Tuesday, 4/16.
Week 3
For Tuesday, 4/16:
Do: Software exercise: Maxent vs. GLA. You'll need these files (text format): StrictRanking.txt, Tweak.txt, DoubleTweak.txt. Due in class Thursday 4/18.
Read: Martin, Andrew (2011) Grammars leak: Modeling how phonotactic generalizations interact. Language 87: 751-770.
Week 4
Assigned Tuesday, 4/23:
Read Moreton & Pater 2012, for class Thurs. 4/25. It's in two parts: part 1, part 2.
MaxEnt exercise with priors. Due in class Tues. 4/30.
Run the "double-tweak" case from previous exercise, but this
time in MaxEnt Grammar Tool
(http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/MaxentGrammarTool/)
Run once ignoring "open constraints" button (will use default
values)
Run again making a constraints file-use SameConstraintFile.txt
in the MaxEnt folder as a basis-but instead of 10,000 for ?2, use something
much smaller, like 0.1
Briefly compare and contrast results.
Week 5
Time to think about a term paper project. We are hereby requiring that you talk with each of us twice; once early and once late. Extra consultations also possible.
Please fill out and return the brief judgment questionnaire, which we'll use as part of a toy model done in class.
New exercise on Logistic Regression, due Thurs. 5/9. This bundle of files has everything you need, including the class handout on to do the work. Your task is to find some new constraints that help the model. Note: this will be the basis as well of our last exercise, on model comparison.
Read: Lofstedt, Ingvar (2010) Phonetic Effects in Swedish Phonology: Allomorphy and Paradigms, UCLA dissertation. Read Chapter 4, "Vowel-vowel correspondence and *MAP". This extract is posted on line on the course website. Read for Tues. 5/7.
Week 6
No assignment given out on Tuesday or Thursday; Seuss exercise due Thursday. We'll have the last exercise next week.
Talk to us about term paper projects.
Mentioned by Bruce in Thursday lecture: Adam Albright (2012) Additive markedness interactions in phonology; a talk handout
Week 7
Last exercise: model comparison for giant Seuss model. Download this file: Combined.txt. Due. Tues May 21.
Read Jennifer Hay and Harald Baayen (2002) Parsing and productivity. Yearbook of Morphology. Read this for Thursday May 23.
Software
Links for phonology in
general