Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam)
This course presents a model of phonology with six representations: two phonological (underlying and surface), two phonetic (auditory and articulatory), and two semantic (morphemes and context). These are connected via ranked constraints (as in Optimality Theory), and the processes of production and comprehension travel all of these representations and their relations in parallel. Computer simulations show that many typological phenomena previously described with separate theoretical devices will now emerge automatically as a result of acquisition or of evolution over the generations.