优选理论的应用_英文_杨宁.pdfVIP

[作者简介 ]杨宁,女,北京语言大学外国语学院讲师,研究方向:语言学。 The Application ofOptimality Theory o Yang N ing (Co llege of F oreign Languages, B eijing Language and Culture University, B eijing, China 100083) [Abstract] In Optim a lity Theory, g ramm ar consists of a set of universa l and v io lab le constraints. OT can be ap- p lied in syntax, sem antics and in language acqu is ition studies in addition to its or ig inal doma in, ( m orpho ) phono logy. Lan- guage va riation arises from d ifferent rankings of the v io lab le constra ints. [K ey words] OT syntax; OT sem antics; language variation; OT acqu is ition [中图分类号 ] H30111 [文献标识码 ] A [文章编号 ] 1672-8610( 2008) 02-0036-08 I1 Introduction OT is a genera l theory o f gramm ar. Its m ain idea is that grammar consists o f a se t o f un iversal and v io la- b le constrain ts. OT w as first developed in the domain of phonology in the n ineties, starting w ith the paper ent itled / Optima lity0 by A lan Prince and Pau lSmo len- sky ( 1993 /2004) [ 1 ] . A fter its successful applicat ion in phono logy, OT has p layed a ro le in many other do- ma ins o f grammar. In this paper Iw ill first introduce the genera l idea of OT. In the nex t section, I w ill discuss the main cla im s, the nature of constra ints, the architecture and the ideas about language variation. I w ill introduceOT syntax in Section 3. In Sect ion 4, I w ill show how OT accounts for language variation. In Sect ion 5, OT se- mant ics w ill be d iscussed. I w ill introduce the opera- t ions H armon ic alignment and Loca l con junction in Section 6. Before I end w ith a short summary, I w ill discuss the OT approach to language acquisit ion in Section 7. II1 Introduction toOT Language users understand each o ther because they share the ru les o f their language. A grammar tries to g ive a systemat ic description of these rules. As hu- man languages often have a number o f properties in common, there is c laimed to be someth ing like a Un-i versa lG rammar (UG) . UG is a s