John J Mccarthy
Biographic Data
| ID | 750464 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John J Mccarthy |
| GIVEN NAMES | John J |
| FAMILY NAME | Mccarthy |
| SIGNATURE | MCCARTHY J J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6339-0718 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 241 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Place-based regional planning: Shaping governance, planning policy and practices in a South African region, 1994–2022
Prosodic Morphology
The phrase ‘prosodic morphology’ refers to a class of linguistic phenomena in which prosodic structure affects morphological form. These phenomena include reduplication, infixation, root-and-pattern morphology, and truncation. A key notion in the analysis of prosodic morphology is the prosodic template, a type of morpheme that consists of a prosodic unit devoid of segmental structure. The filling of the template with segmental material from a bas…
Reduplication in Harmonic Serialism
Perceptually Grounded Faithfulness in Harmonic Serialism
January 01 2011 Perceptually Grounded Faithfulness in Harmonic Serialism In Special Collection: CogNet John J. McCarthy John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Linguistic Inquiry (2011) 42…
Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory
An Introduction to Harmonic Serialism
Harmonic Serialism is a derivational version of Optimality Theory. This article describes the principles of Harmonic Serialism and the arguments for it. Evidence is drawn from the typology and other properties of various phonological phenomena: stress, syncope, assimilation, and positional neutralization
Optimality Theory in Phonology - A Reader
The gradual path to cluster simplification
When a medial consonant cluster is simplified by deletion or place assimilation, the first consonant is affected, but never the second one: /patka/ becomes [paka] and not *[pata]; /panpa/ becomes [pampa] and not [panta]. This article accounts for that observation within a derivational version of Optimality Theory called Harmonic Serialism. In Harmonic Serialism, the final output is reached by a series of derivational steps that gradually improve …
The serial interaction of stress and syncope
Derivations andlevels of representation
In the theory of generative phonology, the phonological grammar of a language is regarded as a function from underlying to surface forms: /kæt þz/ ! [kæts] ‘cats’. Underlying and surface form are known as levels of representation, and the mapping between them is a derivation. This chapter describes the rationale for positing distinct levels of representation, various views of how many and what kind of levels of representation there are, and the n…
What Is Optimality Theory?1
Optimality Theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. This article surveys the motivations for Optimality Theory, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions for further reading
Optimality Theory in Phonology: A Reader
The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic (review)
Reviewed by: The phonology and morphology of Arabic by Janet C. E. Watson John J. McCarthy The phonology and morphology of Arabic. By Janet C. E. Watson. (The phonology of the world’s languages.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. 307. ISBN 0199257590. $95 (Hb). The word ‘Arabic’, like ‘Chinese’, refers to a group of genetically related language varieties that may not be mutually intelligible. It subsumes the classical tongue, its direct …
OT constraints are categorical
In Optimality Theory, constraints come in two types, which are distinguished by their mode of evaluation. Categorical constraints are either satisfied or not; a categorical constraint assigns no more than one violation-mark, unless there are several violating structures in the form under evaluation. Gradient constraints evaluate extent of deviation; they can assign multiple marks even when there is just a single instance of the non-conforming str…
Comparative markedness
The markedness constraints of classic Optimality Theory assign violation-marks to output candidates without reference to the input or to other candidates. This article explores an alternative conception of markedness: markedness constraints compare the candidate under evaluation with another candidate, the most faithful one. Comparative constraints distinguish two situations: the candidate under evaluation contains an instance of a marked structu…
What does comparative markedness explain, what should it explain, and how
1. Introduction These seven commentaries treat a wide range of topics in interesting and insightful ways. It is not possible to write a coherent response that addresses all of the criticisms and suggestions, large and small, that the authors have brought up. Several main themes emerge, however, that transcend the individual commentaries, and these themes supply the structure for this reply. They include alternatives to comparative markedness, pos…
On targeted constraints and cluster simplification
In his article ‘Consonant cluster neutralisation and targeted constraints’, Wilson (2001) proposes a far-reaching revision of Optimality Theory to accommodate targeted constraints, which compare candidates differing only in certain specific ways. Targeted constraints, it is argued, can explain why cluster-simplification processes affect the first member of a cluster but never the more marked member of a cluster. In this remark, I show that this a…
A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory
This book describes Optimality Theory from the top down, explaining and exploring the central premises of OT and the results of their praxis. Examples are drawn from phonology, morphology, and syntax, but the emphasis throughout is on the theory rather than the examples, on understanding what is special about OT and on equipping readers to apply it, extend it, and critique it in their own areas of interest. To enhance the book's usefulness for re…
The Prosody Of Phase In Rotuman
Faithfulness and identity in Prosodic Morphology
Introduction The theory of Prosodic Morphology (PM) addresses a range of empirical problems lying at the phonology-morphology interface: reduplication, infixation, root-and-pattern morphology, and canonical shape requirements (such as word minimality). Its goal is to explain the properties of these phenomena in terms of general, independently motivated principles of morphology, of phonology, and of their interface. If the enterprise is fully succ…
Sympathy and phonological opacity
A central idea in rule-based phonology is the serial derivation (Chomsky & Halle 1968). In a serial derivation, an underlying form passes through a number of intermediate representations on its way to the surface:[Scheme here]Implementational details can differ: the order of rules might be stipulated or it might be derived from universal principles; the steps might be called ‘rules’, ‘cycles’ or ‘levels’; the steps might involve applying rules or…
Reduplication with Fixed Segmentism
Fixed segmentism is the phenomenon whereby a reduplicative morpheme contains segments that are invariant rather than copied. We investigate it within Optimality Theory, arguing that it falls into two distinct types, phonological and morphological. Phonological fixed segmentism is analyzed under the OT rubric of emergence of the unmarked. It therefore has significant connections to markedness theory, sharing properties with other domains where mar…
L'émergence du non-marqué. L'optimalité en morphologie prosodique
In Optimality Theory (ОТ ; Prince & Smolensky 1993), linguistic structures emerge from grammatical constraints interaction which assigns to the standard notions of markedness, marked structure, unmarked structure and implicational markedness a precise formal status. This conception is explored in the domain of Prosodie Morphology. The article presents first the basics of the analysis, then formal descriptions of syllabic and morphological aspects…
The phonetics and phonology of Semitic pharyngeals
Introduction An adequate theory of phonological distinctive features must meet four criteria: (i) it must have a relatively consistent and direct relation to the phonetic properties of speech sounds; (ii) it must be able to describe all and only the distinctions made by the sound systems of any of the world's languages; (iii) it must be able to characterize all and only the natural classes of sounds that recur in the phonological phenomena of dif…
Quantitative Urine Drug Monitoring in Methadone Programs: Potential Clinical Uses
An on-site clinical laboratory in a methadone program can provide semiquantitative urine drug monitoring by using fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) technology. This report documents a wide range of urine drug levels from threshold to near 2,000,000 ng/ml in this patient population, suggesting how laboratory measures can assist in assessing the severity of addiction. Urine drug level data are reported for drugs of abuse (opioid, ampheta…
The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition
This collection of articles and associated discussion papers focuses on a problem that has attracted increasing attention from linguists and psychologists throughout the world during the past several years. Reduced to essentials, the problem is that of discovering the character of the mental capacities that make it possible for human beings to attain knowledge of their language on the basis of fragmentary and haphazard early linguistic experience…
A Case of Surface Constraint Violation
The idea that constraints on well-formedness play a role in determining phonological alternations, which dates back at least to Kisseberth's (1970) pioneering work, has by now achieved almost universal acceptance. A tacit assumption of this program, largely unquestioned even in recent research, is the notion that valid constraints must state true generalizations about surface structure or some other level of phonological representation. Anything …
An Introduction to Harmonic Serialism
Harmonic Serialism is a derivational version of Optimality Theory. This article describes the principles of Harmonic Serialism and the arguments for it. Evidence is drawn from the typology and other properties of various phonological phenomena: stress, syncope, assimilation, and positional neutralization
The serial interaction of stress and syncope
Reduplication with Fixed Segmentism
Fixed segmentism is the phenomenon whereby a reduplicative morpheme contains segments that are invariant rather than copied. We investigate it within Optimality Theory, arguing that it falls into two distinct types, phonological and morphological. Phonological fixed segmentism is analyzed under the OT rubric of emergence of the unmarked. It therefore has significant connections to markedness theory, sharing properties with other domains where mar…
Reduplication in Harmonic Serialism
The Prosody Of Phase In Rotuman
Prosodic Structure and Expletive Infixation
An analysis of English Expletive Infixation (as in fan-fuckin-tastic) in terms of a metrical theory of prosody is presented. It is shown that the major environment for Expletive Infixation—immediately before a stressed syllable—follows from independently motivated characteristics of this theory. Further support for this metrical theory is adduced from infixation in words with dactylic stress alternation and with internal stress-neutral junctures,…
What Is Optimality Theory?1
Optimality Theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. This article surveys the motivations for Optimality Theory, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions for further reading
A Theory of Internal Reduplication
Perceptually Grounded Faithfulness in Harmonic Serialism
January 01 2011 Perceptually Grounded Faithfulness in Harmonic Serialism In Special Collection: CogNet John J. McCarthy John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Linguistic Inquiry (2011) 42…
L'infixation réduplicative dans les langages secrets
Mc Carthy J. L'infixation réduplicative dans les langages secrets. In: Langages, 25e année, n°101, 1991. Les javanais, sous la direction de Marc Plénat. pp. 11-29
Problems of planning for urbanization and development in South Africa: The case of Natal's coastal margins
The Imperial Commitment 1939–41
Syllables and Segments
198-204
Prosodic Structure and Expletive Infixation
An analysis of English Expletive Infixation (as in fan-fuckin-tastic) in terms of a metrical theory of prosody is presented. It is shown that the major environment for Expletive Infixation—immediately before a stressed syllable—follows from independently motivated characteristics of this theory. Further support for this metrical theory is adduced from infixation in words with dactylic stress alternation and with internal stress-neutral junctures,…
A Theory of Internal Reduplication
The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition
This collection of articles and associated discussion papers focuses on a problem that has attracted increasing attention from linguists and psychologists throughout the world during the past several years. Reduced to essentials, the problem is that of discovering the character of the mental capacities that make it possible for human beings to attain knowledge of their language on the basis of fragmentary and haphazard early linguistic experience…
Problems of planning for urbanization and development in South Africa: The case of Natal's coastal margins
Feature Geometry and Dependency: A Review
A fundamental problem in phonological theory is the fact that processes often operate on consistent subsets of the distinctive features within a segment, like the features that characterize place of articulation. Recent research has responded to this problem by proposing a hierarchical organization of the features into functionally related classes, grouped under nodes of a tree structure. This ‘geometry’ resembles earlier theories that accomplish…
Prosodic circumscription in Choctaw morphology
The theory of PROSODIC CIRCUMSCRIPTION (McCarthy & Prince 1990a) is a general approach to the problem of limiting the domain of rules to less than a morphological constituent. For example, in the Arabic singular/ plural pairs ndub/anaadib ‘locust’ and sulṭaan/salaaṭiin ‘sultan’, vowel length in the final syllable remains unaltered despite significant changes in the shape of the rest of the word. Prosodic circumscription theory partitions the sing…
Synchronic Rule Inversion
Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Grammar of Event Structure (1991), pp. 192-207
L'infixation réduplicative dans les langages secrets
Mc Carthy J. L'infixation réduplicative dans les langages secrets. In: Langages, 25e année, n°101, 1991. Les javanais, sous la direction de Marc Plénat. pp. 11-29
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics, I: Papers from the First Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics
Generalized alignment
A Case of Surface Constraint Violation
The idea that constraints on well-formedness play a role in determining phonological alternations, which dates back at least to Kisseberth's (1970) pioneering work, has by now achieved almost universal acceptance. A tacit assumption of this program, largely unquestioned even in recent research, is the notion that valid constraints must state true generalizations about surface structure or some other level of phonological representation. Anything …
The phonetics and phonology of Semitic pharyngeals
Introduction An adequate theory of phonological distinctive features must meet four criteria: (i) it must have a relatively consistent and direct relation to the phonetic properties of speech sounds; (ii) it must be able to describe all and only the distinctions made by the sound systems of any of the world's languages; (iii) it must be able to characterize all and only the natural classes of sounds that recur in the phonological phenomena of dif…
Quantitative Urine Drug Monitoring in Methadone Programs: Potential Clinical Uses
An on-site clinical laboratory in a methadone program can provide semiquantitative urine drug monitoring by using fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) technology. This report documents a wide range of urine drug levels from threshold to near 2,000,000 ng/ml in this patient population, suggesting how laboratory measures can assist in assessing the severity of addiction. Urine drug level data are reported for drugs of abuse (opioid, ampheta…
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics, III: Papers from the Third Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics
L'émergence du non-marqué. L'optimalité en morphologie prosodique
In Optimality Theory (ОТ ; Prince & Smolensky 1993), linguistic structures emerge from grammatical constraints interaction which assigns to the standard notions of markedness, marked structure, unmarked structure and implicational markedness a precise formal status. This conception is explored in the domain of Prosodie Morphology. The article presents first the basics of the analysis, then formal descriptions of syllabic and morphological aspects…
Faithfulness and identity in Prosodic Morphology
Introduction The theory of Prosodic Morphology (PM) addresses a range of empirical problems lying at the phonology-morphology interface: reduplication, infixation, root-and-pattern morphology, and canonical shape requirements (such as word minimality). Its goal is to explain the properties of these phenomena in terms of general, independently motivated principles of morphology, of phonology, and of their interface. If the enterprise is fully succ…
Sympathy and phonological opacity
A central idea in rule-based phonology is the serial derivation (Chomsky & Halle 1968). In a serial derivation, an underlying form passes through a number of intermediate representations on its way to the surface:[Scheme here]Implementational details can differ: the order of rules might be stipulated or it might be derived from universal principles; the steps might be called ‘rules’, ‘cycles’ or ‘levels’; the steps might involve applying rules or…
Reduplication with Fixed Segmentism
Fixed segmentism is the phenomenon whereby a reduplicative morpheme contains segments that are invariant rather than copied. We investigate it within Optimality Theory, arguing that it falls into two distinct types, phonological and morphological. Phonological fixed segmentism is analyzed under the OT rubric of emergence of the unmarked. It therefore has significant connections to markedness theory, sharing properties with other domains where mar…
The Prosody Of Phase In Rotuman
A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory
This book describes Optimality Theory from the top down, explaining and exploring the central premises of OT and the results of their praxis. Examples are drawn from phonology, morphology, and syntax, but the emphasis throughout is on the theory rather than the examples, on understanding what is special about OT and on equipping readers to apply it, extend it, and critique it in their own areas of interest. To enhance the book's usefulness for re…
On targeted constraints and cluster simplification
In his article ‘Consonant cluster neutralisation and targeted constraints’, Wilson (2001) proposes a far-reaching revision of Optimality Theory to accommodate targeted constraints, which compare candidates differing only in certain specific ways. Targeted constraints, it is argued, can explain why cluster-simplification processes affect the first member of a cluster but never the more marked member of a cluster. In this remark, I show that this a…
OT constraints are categorical
In Optimality Theory, constraints come in two types, which are distinguished by their mode of evaluation. Categorical constraints are either satisfied or not; a categorical constraint assigns no more than one violation-mark, unless there are several violating structures in the form under evaluation. Gradient constraints evaluate extent of deviation; they can assign multiple marks even when there is just a single instance of the non-conforming str…
Comparative markedness
The markedness constraints of classic Optimality Theory assign violation-marks to output candidates without reference to the input or to other candidates. This article explores an alternative conception of markedness: markedness constraints compare the candidate under evaluation with another candidate, the most faithful one. Comparative constraints distinguish two situations: the candidate under evaluation contains an instance of a marked structu…
Phonetics and Phonology Research (26 works) · Linguistics (25 works) · Philosophy (23 works) · Computer Science (21 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (17 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (14 works) · Optimality theory (13 works) · Phonology (11 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Epistemology (6 works)