Details of Research Outputs

This paper proposes that OT can be used to account for such complex language changes as the Great Vowel Shift(GVS). Some of the theoretical consequences of its application to language change will be discussed. This proposal accounts for three stages of the Great Vowel Shift(GVS) (Miglio & Moren 1999). The GVS is a synchronic chain shift which involves raisings and diphthongizations. With this view, I also analyze the GVS within OT by using the distantial faithfulness constraint (Kirchner 1996). I show that an OT analysis is not only capable of handling the GVS, but is the only approach which can formally characterize such synchronic chain shifts in a unified manner.