T-Order Generator
Arto Anttila and Curtis Andrus, Stanford University
In Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993), a set of grammatical
constraints defines a space of possible languages. This space is called
the
FACTORIAL TYPOLOGY. Every factorial typology defines
a
T-ORDER, i.e. a set of implicational universals that hold
among <input, output> pairs.
T-ORDER GENERATOR is a
free open-source Python program that generates T-orders. The input to the
program is either a factorial typology generated
by
OTSoft or a constraint violation tableau; the output is a T-order
visualized as a directed graph. This structure has a useful application in
the study of variation: it imposes universal limits on the quantitative
variation permitted by a constraint set. These limits hold under several
theories of variation, including Multiple Grammars, Partially Ordered
Grammars, and Stochastic Optimality Theory.
For a short introduction to T-orders,
read
Anttila and Andrus 2006. To get started,
download
the
program and the sample input
file
t-deletion.xls that describes the quantitative patterning of
t/d-deletion in a fictitious dialect of English. See Anttila and Andrus
2006 for discussion.
Download T-Order Generator (old version)
Download T-Order Generator (development version, March 21, 2008).
This version introduces several new features. In particular: (i) T-Orders
can now be computed either indirectly
from
OTSoft factorial typologies or directly from violation profiles. The
latter method uses Prince's
ELEMENTARY RANKING CONDITIONS
(ERCs, see
e.g.
Prince 2006) which remain invisible to the user. At present, a priori
rankings can only be introduced via OTSoft, not directly via the ERC
method, but work is under way to remove this limitation; (ii) you can now
calculate precision and recall to assess how well the T-order fits the
data; for examples,
see
Anttila to appear; (iii) Installing Graphviz is no longer required.
(Hayes, Tesar and Zuraw 2003)
T-Order Manual (Anttila and Andrus 2006)
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