A stochastic OT approach to word order variation in Korlai Portuguese

have recently proposed a stochastic version of optimality theory (OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993) along with a learning algorithm, the Gradual Learning Algorithm (GLA). This framework offers a great deal of promise in accounting for variable linguistic phenomena, which in general have received less attention in the theoretical literature. Boersma and Hayes exemplify stochastic OT with various empirical test-cases of phonological variation. Although OT in general has been increasingly applied in the realm of syntax (e. In what follows, the study of stochastic OT in the realm of syntax is furthered by applying this framework to a case of synchronic word order variation in The application of stochastic OT to this problem is argued to have at least two advantages. First, it provides a possible alternative to the competing grammars account of synchronic instability for synchronic stages where " mutually inconsistent " types of word order are observed to arise in the same system (cf. Kroch 1989, 1994). Second, it improves on Clements' (2001) parameter-based account of head-complement/head-adjunct order in Korlai Portuguese. Further, it is argued that the type of word order variation observed in KP is actually predicted to occur given the stochastic OT architecture, and given a small set of violable constraints. Crucially, the same constraints that constrain categorical phenomena also constrain variable phenomena. This idea has been stated quite clearly by Bresnan and Deo (2001: 40), who argue that under stochastic OT, " …individual variation samples the typological space of possible grammars. " Below, I first give a brief introduction to the stochastic OT framework. This is followed by a presentation of the types of word order variation found in KP. Also presented in this section are the frequency data collected by Clements (2001) on verb/object and verb/adjunct order in KP, which are at the core of the present study. Next, a stochastic OT account of these phenomena is developed by conducting a series of computer simulations using Clements' (2001) data and the OTSoft software package of Hayes, Tesar, and Zuraw (2000). Finally, I make some concluding remarks.

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