LIN 331; GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY

OPTIMALITY THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION TO IGBO

SYLLABIC STRUTURE
Optimality theory is a framework within linguistics that was originally developed in the 20 th
century to account for patterns of variations and constraint interaction in Phonological systems.
Although it was originally formulated for phonology, it has since been adapted and extended to
other linguistic domain including morphology and syntax. Optimality theory provides a valuable
tool for understating how language structures are organized, and how different linguistic forms
complete and interact with one another.

SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES OF OPTIMALITY THEORY

1. CONSTRAINTS: The central idea of optimality theory is that language structures are
governed by a set of universal and violable constraints. Constraints are rules or
principles that represent linguistic well-formedness. They can be ranked, with higher
ranked constraints taking precedence over lower ranked ones.
2. CANDIDATE SET: In optimality theory, a linguistic analysis which consists of generating a
set of possible candidates (linguistic forms) for a given input. These candidates are
potential surface forms that could be produced by a language speaker in a given
context.
3. EVALUATION AND RANKING: Each candidate in the set is evaluated with respect to the
constraints. The candidate that best satisfies the highest ranked constraints is
considered the optimal candidate, representing the grammatical output.
4. CONSTRAINT VIOLATION: Constraints may be violated in order to satisfy higher ranked
constraints. A constraint that violates a higher ranked constraint would not be
considered optimal but rather sub-optimal.
5. MARKEDNESS AND FAITHFULNESS: Two main types of constraints in Optimality Theory
are Markedness and Faithfulness constraints. Markedness constraints prefer certain
linguistic structure promoting simplicity or regularity. Faithfulness constraints on the
other hand, favour maintaining a one-to-one relationship between input and output
forms.

SOME APPLICATIONS OF OPTMALTY THEORY

1. PHONOLOGY: Optimality theory has been widely applied to phonological phenomena

such as, syllable structure, vowel harmony and consonant inventories, providing
explanations for phonological patterns observed in various languages.
 2. SYNTAX: Optimality theory has also been extended to account for syntactic phenomena,
including word order and argument structure. In this context, constraint may represent
principles of economy, information structure or grammatical well-formedness.
3. MORPHOLOGY: Optimality theory has been used to analyze processes like affixation and
reduplication, as well as morphological alterations, by ranking constraints related to
morphological well-formedness and morpho-phonological faithfulness.
4. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: optimality theory has been applied to understand language
acquisition processes, as it offers a way to model how children learn linguistic patterns
by ranking constraints differently during development.

CRITIQUES AND DEVELOPMENTS

Although Optimality theory has been proven to be a powerful framework for linguistic
analysis, it has not been without criticisms. Some linguists argue that the high degree of
abstraction in Optimality theory allows for multiple analyses of the same data, potentially
leading to over-generation of possible candidates.

Additionally, the theory has been criticized for lacking predictive power in certain
linguistics domain. Overtime, various modifications and extensions of Optimality theory has
been proposed to address some of these limitations. These include Stochastic Optimality
Theory, Harmonic Grammar, and Gradients in OT, which introduce probabilistic or gradient
elements to constraints evaluation, these developments aims to better capture the probabilistic
nature of language and allow for a more fine-grained analysis of linguistic data.

APPLICATION OF THE OPTIMALITY THEORY TO THE IGBO SYLLABIC STRUCTURE BY

CHIKELUBA, MAUREEN AZUKA AND EME CECILIA AMAOGE.

According to Emenanjo (1978), the Igbo syllabic structure can be summarized as follows;
T
(C) . (Where C = consonant, “()” = Optimality; this is to say that the onset is an optional
S

element, S = syllabic! The syllabic elements are vowels and the syllabic nasals. They are the tone
bearing units (BTUS) of the language. T = Tone, it is attached to the TBUS only. Core
syllabifications in Igbo are as follows:

V =>i/i “you”, olỌ “he, she, it”.

CV=> “do”, “ga”, “go”

N=> M “me”.

The Igbo language does not accept consonant clusters.

 The Optimality theory can be applied to the Igbo syllable structure by generating the
possible candidates, evaluating them within regard to the ranking of constraints, and
establishing the optimal candidate.

In order to determine how the Optimality theory can be applied to the Igbo syllabic
structure, many Igbo words were collected and analyzed, but for want of space, we exemplify
with the following nouns:

ITEM 1: égó “money”

Constraints:

NO CODA – syllables must not have codas

ONS – syllable must have onsets

Ranking – NO CODA>>ONS

Reason – NO CODA is ranked highest, because in Igbo, closed syllables are not allowed
and Igbo syllables may have an ONS.

Égoō - NO CODA >> ONS

/égo/ NO CODA ONS

ég.o *! **
=> é.go ** <=
The Optimal candidate here is “e.go”, indicated by the pointing finger. The minimal
candidate is “eg.o”. This is because in the first syllable it violates the first syllable, it violates the
highest ranked constraint (NO CODA), and therefore it is ruled out mercilessly. This is shown by
the exclamation mark that accompanies the asterisk. The shaded area show the irrelevance of
the remaining constraints to the fate of the candidates.

ITEM 2: nnékwú

Constraints:

NO CODA – syllables must be open

NO CLST- forbids consonant clusters

NO REP – forbids replacement of a segment with another

ONS – syllables must have onsets

Ranking: NO CODA>>NO CLST>>NO REP>>ONS

 Reason: Igbo forbids coda, cluster and replacement of a sound segment with another
segments, however since some sounds in the language have their optimal variants, NO REP is
ranked lower than NO CODA and NO CLST. An Igbo syllable may not have ONS, hence it is the
lowest raked constraint among them.

“nnékwú” – NO CODA>>NO CLST>>NO REP>>ONS

/nnékwú/ NO CODA NO CLST NO REP ONST

n.n.ékw.ú *!*! ***
n.né.kwú *! **
=> n.né.kwú * <=
nn.é.kwú *! **

The optimal candidate here is “n.né.kwú” while the minimal candidate is “n.né.kwú”.
the optimal candidate is recognized by the pointing finger that is placed before it. Due to the
violation of the highest ranked constraint (NO CODA) by the minimal candidates at the first and
second syllables, it is therefore ruled out mercilessly. This is indicated by the exclamation marks
that accompany the asterisks. The shaded areas represent the irrelevance of the remaining
constraints of the fate of the candidates.

ITEM 3: ìkùkù “wind”

Constraints:

NO CODA – syllables must be open

ONS – syllables must have onsets

VOW REC – each vowel sounds produced must be recognized in a syllable.

Ranking: NO CODA>>VOW REC>>ONS

Reason: In Igbo language, closed syllables are not allowed and no one syllable should
contain two or more outstanding vowel sounds, that is why NO CODA and VOW REC are ranked
higher while ONST which an Igbo word may not have is ranked lower than NO CODA and VOW
REC respectively.

Ìkùkù: NO CODA>>VOW REC>>ONST

/ìkùkù/ NO CODA VOW REC ONS

Ìk.ùkù *! *
Ìkù.kù * *
=> Ì.kù.kù **
 Here, the optimal candidate is “ì.kù.kù” which the pointing finger indicates. “ìk.ùkù” is
the minimal candidate because it violates the highest ranking constraint (NO CODA) and then is
ruled out mercilessly. This makes the evaluation of “VOW REC” and “ONS” irrelevant as is show
by the cells being empty/ shaded. The exclamation mark which accompanies the asterisks
indicates the outright ruling out of the candidate (NO CODA).

ITEM 4: ányàsị̀

Constraints:

NO CODA – syllables must be open

VOW REC – each pronounced vowel sound must be recognized in a syllable

ONST – syllables must have onset

Ranking: NO CODA>>VOW REC>>ONST

Reason: Igbo language forbids coda and demands that each produced vowel sound must
be recognized in a syllable. Since an Igbo syllable may not have ONS, hence it is ranked lower
than NO CODA and NO REC.

Ányàsị̀: NO CODA>>VOW REC>>ONST

NO CODA VOW REC ONST

=> Á.nyà.sị̀ *
Ányà.sị̀ * *
Ány.àsị̀ *! *
“Á.nyà.sị̀” is the optimal candidate here which is indicated by the pointing finger. The
minimal candidate is “ány.àsị”̀ because it violates the highest ranked constraint (NO CODA) in
the first syllable. Therefore, this candidate is ruled out mercilessly. The exclamation mark that
follows the asterisk shows that. The shaded/ blank areas show the irrelevance of the remaiing
constraints to the fate of the candidates.