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Abstract : |
Basic learnability considerations are argued to explain the broad generalization that the same linguistic structures which are marked in the sense of later-emerging in child language tend also to be marked in adult languages. Using Optimality Theory (OT), and developing a proposal of Prince (1993), this generalization can be reduced to the requirement that the initial state ? possess the 0 property that structural markedness constraints outrank faithfulness constraints. ? is explained as a learnability consequence of a 0 fundamental OT principle, richness of the base: the set of possible inputs to the grammar is universal. This principle entails a strong requirement for what it means to have acquired a language with an unmarked inventory: subordination of faithfulness constraints in the absence of evidence of their domination. This raises a familiar type of Subset Problem for acquisition, which ? resolves. Richness of 0 the base lends unity to a seemingly incoherent set of assumptions defining the emerging OT theory of acquisition: the initial state is ?, 0 and the child?s inputs to the grammar are close to the adult form., |
