nativism and OT constraints

[Joseph Stemberger]

For some (albeit too brief) discussion of nativism, OT constraints, and
phonetic grounding, interested people might want to look at:

1) Bernhardt, B.H., & Stemberger, J.P. (1998). Handbook of Phonological
Development: From the Perspective of constraint-based nonlinear
phonology. San Diego: Academic Press.

esp. pp.62-65, but also the whole section on innateness (pp.55-66)


2) Stemberger, J. P., & Bernhardt, B. H. (1999). The emergence of
faithfulness. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), The emergence of language (pp.
417-446). Mahweh, NJ: Erlbaum.

esp. pp. 430-432


One of the issues that we raise there is how any universal constraint or
UNIVERSAL CONSTRAINT RANKING that is functionally based could get to be
innate. We argue that it is extremely unlikely and would most likely
involve the rather horrific assumption that any language with e.g.
voiceless vowels leads to a decrease in evolutionary fitness. But we
also invite anyone who wishes to take such a nativist point of view to
work out a plausible evolutionary scenario for it.


---Joe Stemberger
Linguistics
UBC