USC Graduate Phonology ✳︎ Fall 2019 ✳︎ Smith


Ranking constraints


I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."

Abraham Maslow

The selection problem and the ranking problem

Crucial ranking and non-crucial rankings

Ranking argument practice: Dutch

Candidates Max–V *ʔV̆ Ident(stress) *VV Dep–C
/aɔ́rta/ a. [a.ɔ́r.ta]
b. ☞[a.ʔɔ́r.ta]
c. [ɔ́r.ta]
d. [a.ʔɔr.tá]
/xáos/ a. ☞ [xá.os]
b. [xá.ʔos]
c. [xos]
d. [xa.ʔós]

Hasse diagrams

Example of a Hasse Diagram
Example of a Hasse Diagram

The comparative tableau

Example of a violation tableau
Candidates *CC Dep–V
/at-ka/ a. ☞ [atəka] ✳︎
b. [atka] ✳︎!
/at-a/ a. [atəa] ✳︎!
b. ☞ [ata]
Example of a comparative tableau
Input Winner ~ Loser *CC Dep–V
a. /at-ka/ [atəka] ~ [atka] W L
b. /at-a/ [ata] ~ [atəa] e W

Practice with crucial rankings

Tableau 1
Winner ~ Loser Con–X Con–Y Con–Z
a. cand-1 ~ cand-2 W L
b. cand-1 ~ cand-3 W L
Tableau 2
Winner ~ Loser Con–X Con–Y Con–Z
a. cand-1 ~ cand-2 W W L
b. cand-1 ~ cand-3 L W
Tableau 3
Winner ~ Loser Con–X Con–Y Con–Z
a. cand-1 ~ cand-2 L W L
b. cand-1 ~ cand-3 W
Tableau 4
Winner ~ Loser Con–X Con–Y Con–Z
a. cand-1 ~ cand-2 W L L
b. cand-1 ~ cand-3 L W
Tableau 5
Winner ~ Loser Con–X Con–Y Con–Z
a. cand-1 ~ cand-2 W L
b. cand-1 ~ cand-3 W

Hybrid tableaux (combination tableaux)

Example of a hybrid tableau
Candidates *CC Dep–V
/at-ka/ a. ☞ [atəka] 1
b. [atka] 1W L
/at-a/ a. [atəa] 1W
b. ☞[ata]

ERC Fusion (Prince 2002)

Recap of major ideas


  1. If you want to read more about this beyond what we discuss, a great place is Prince (2017) “Representing Grammars”, which discusses the merits of different representational devices at length. In the “Don’t Go There” category are violation tableaux with dashed lines and hybrid tableaux.  ↩