Declarative Phonology

The YorkTalk/IPOX research draws from and contributes to the field of Declarative Phonology (Bird 1991).

Goals

• formalize non-linear (metrical and auto-segmental) phonology
• add phonology to declarative, constraint-based theories of language (e.g. HPSG)
• formulate a maximally restrictive theory of phonological well-formedness

Properties

• non-derivational
• mono-stratal (no levels of representation)
• non-destructive (no deletion rules)
• no extrinsic rule ordering
• surface-based

Differences with Optimality Theory

(Prince and Smolensky 1992)

• conflicts between constraints are not allowed (but see Ellison 1994)
• emphasis on computational implementation