摘要
本文主要从其产生的历史背景／基本原理和在音系分析中的具体应用方面对以制约条件为基础的优选论作一概要性的介绍。优选论的产生是在生成音系学发展过程中研究的重点从音系规则和底层表达转移到对作用于表层表达的制约条件的必然结果。优选论为认识音系现象提供了一个新的视角，能够发现一些表面上看起来似乎没有关系的现象之间的内在联系并给予最大限度的概括，对音系学中一些长期没有得到解决的具体问题提出了新的分析方法。更重要的是，优选论为人类语言的研究开辟了一个新的途径。从这个意义上讲，优选论是一种值得研究的语言学理论。本文的最后部分简要讨论了优选论理论框架内关于生成装置特性和如何构建底层表达两个热点问题以及某些相关问题，如语言习得语言普遍现象／（无）标记性和语言历时变化。
This article presents a survey of Optimality Theory (OT hereafter), a constraint based phonological theory , in terms of the historical background against which it emerged, its theoretical framework and mechanisms and its extended applications to various complex phonological processes such as vowel harmony and tone phenomena. The survey shows that the emergence of OT is the inevitable development of generative phonology where the focus of interest has shifted from phonological rules and underlying representation onto constraints imposed on surface representation. It also shows that OT is an advantageous and promising linguistic theory in that it enjoys a full substitution of universal constraints for language specific rules and is able to make unified generalizations of seemingly unrelated phenomena and to offer a better solution to some long standing unsatisfactorily solved problems in particular by reconsidering them in a novel perspective, and in that, more significantly, it provides an unprecedented approach to human language in general. Briefly discussed in the final section of the article are some current issues internal to OT such as the properties of Gen and the configuration of underlying representation, and issues related to language acquisition, language universals / (un ) markedness and diachronic phonology as well.
出处
《现代外语》
CSSCI
北大核心
1998年第3期74-93,73,共21页
Modern Foreign Languages
关键词
优选论
音系学
产生
原理
应用
Optimality, Phonology, Emergence, Principle, Application
