OT--5 crucial strategic decisions that vitiate...

[Brian MacWhinney]

Dear Joan (and Funknet),
  Thank you for the extremely helpful reply.  I have downloaded the various
papers you mentioned from the OT archive.  I had read the Tesar ones earlier,
but I will reread them now.  I realize that Tesar's learning algorithm for OT
doesn't use triggers, but it does use single trial evidence to reorder
constraints.  The dominance ordering of constraints in his model is absolute,
so there is no way in which the slow accumulation of data in favor of a
particular pattern in a language can lead to the gradual accumulation in its
strength.  However, I believe that the real problem with the Tesar model is
not the strict dominance assumption, but the commitment to requiring the
child to learn an abstract underlying form.  If the Boersma and Hayes model
addresses this problem, as well as the strict dominance issue, that would be
great.
   I recently finished Bernhardt and Stemberger's OT treatment of
phonological development (primarily for English).  Although the authors set
up a nice framework for discussing phonological acquisition, I think that the
mechanics of OT tend to make the actual presentation of constraint patterns a
fairly tough job.
  At this point, I think it would be best for me to go "offline" and do my
homework.  I have contacted Flemming and Kuhn, asking for the relevant
papers.  I will read them, the OT files, and Kager (1999).
  In a sense, what is important is not whether OT has problems, but whether
it is recognizing these problems and moving to address them.  I found your
letter extremely encouraging in this regard.  However, it is now time for me
to do some more reading.  Until then.

--Brian MacWhinney