Listener-oriented Phonology - 2004

Explore a lecture on listener-oriented phonology presented by Paul Boersma from the University of Amsterdam in 2004 at the Center for Language & Speech Processing (CLSP), Johns Hopkins University. Delve into the comparison between speaker-based and listener-oriented views of phonology, using French vowel-initial words as a primary example. Examine how Optimality Theory can be adapted to a listener-oriented approach, and learn about the proposed replacement of ad-hoc "exclamation constraints" with "listener-oriented faithfulness" constraints. Discover how this new perspective can provide more comprehensive explanations for phonological processes and predict the limited applicability of certain constraints. The 80-minute lecture offers insights into the maintenance of language-specific contrasts and the potential benefits of adopting a listener-oriented approach in phonological analysis.