Optimality-Theoretic Syntax
Optimality-Theoretic Syntax

Author: Geraldine Legendre

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2001-06-22

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9780262263504

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Recent work in theoretical syntax has revealed the strong explanatory power of the notions of economy, competition, and optimization. Building grammars entirely upon these elements, Optimality Theory syntax provides a theory of universal grammar with a formally precise and strongly restricted theory of universal typology: cross-linguistic variation arises exclusively from the conflict among universal principles.Beginning with a general introduction to Optimality Theory syntax, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art, as represented by the work of the leading developers of the theory. The broad range of topics treated includes morphosyntax (case, inflection, voice, and cliticization), the syntax of reference (control, anaphora, and pronominalization), the gammar of clauses (complementizers and their absence), and grammatical and discourse effects in word order. Among the theoretical themes running throughout are the interplay between faithfulness and markedness, and various questions of typology and of inventory. Contributors Peter Ackema, Judith Aissen, Eric Bakovic, Joan Bresnan, Hye-Won Choi, João Costa, Jane Grimshaw, Edward Keer, Géraldine Legendre, Gereon Müller, Ad Neeleman, Vieri Samek-Lodovici, Peter Sells, Margaret Speas, Sten Vikner, Colin Wilson, Ellen Woolford

Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics
Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

Author: Géraldine Legendre

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 0198757115

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This book investigates the morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of language, and the interactions between them, from the perspective of Optimality Theory. It integrates optimization processes into the formal and functional study of grammar, interpreting optimization as the result of conflicting, violable ranked constraints. Unlike previous work on the topic, this book also takes into account the question of directionality of grammar. A model of grammar in which optimization processes interact bidirectionally allows both language generation-the process of selecting the optimal form of a given meaning-and language interpretation-the process of optimal interpretation of a given form-to be taken into account. Chapters in this volume explore the consequences of both symmetric (unidirectional) and asymmetric (bidirectional) versions of Optimality Theory, investigating the syntax-semantics interface, first language acquisition, and sequential bilingual grammars. The volume presents cutting edge research in Optimality-Theoretic syntax and semantics, as well as demonstrating how optimization processes as modelled in this formalism serve as a viable approach for linguists and scholars in related fields.

Bidirectional Optimality Theory
Bidirectional Optimality Theory

Author: Anton Benz

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 9027255636

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Bidirectional Optimality Theory (BiOT) emerged at the turn of the millennium as a fusion of Radical Pragmatics and Optimality Theoretic Semantics. It stirred a wealth of new research in the pragmatics-semantics interface and heavily influenced e.g. the development of evolutionary and game theoretic approaches. Optimality Theory holds that linguistic output can be understood as the optimized products of ranked constraints. At the centre of BiOT is the insight that this optimisation has to take place both in production and interpretation, and that the production-interpretation cycle has to lead back to the original input. BiOT is now generally interpreted as a description of diachronically stable and cognitively optimal form–meaning pairs. It found applications beyond the semantics-pragmatics interface in language acquisition, historical linguistics, phonology, syntax, and typology. This book provides a state of the art overview of these developments. It collects nine chapters by leading scientists in the field.

Optimality Theory
Optimality Theory

Author: Joost Dekkers (linguiste)

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 656

ISBN-13: 9780198238447

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Optimality theory has revolutionized phonological theory, and its insights are now being applied to other central aspects of language. This book presents the results of research as applied to syntax/language acquisition, as well as considering the main lines of attack by rule-based grammarians.

Optimality Theory
Optimality Theory

Author: Rene Kager

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1999-06-28

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9780521589802

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This is an introduction to Optimality Theory, whose central idea is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. A surface form is 'optimal' if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of constraints, taking into account their hierarchical ranking. Languages differ in the ranking of constraints; and any violations must be minimal. The book does not limit its empirical scope to phonological phenomena, but also contains chapters on the learnability of OT grammars; OT's implications for syntax; and other issues such as opacity. It also reviews in detail a selection of the considerable research output which OT has already produced. Exercises accompany chapters 1-7, and there are sections on further reading. Optimality Theory will be welcomed by any linguist with a basic knowledge of derivational Generative Phonology.

Optimality Theory in Phonology
Optimality Theory in Phonology

Author: John J. McCarthy

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 0470755520

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Optimality Theory in Phonology: A Reader is a collection of readings on this important new theory by leading figures in the field, including a lengthy excerpt from Prince and Smolensky’s never-before-published Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Compiles the most important readings about Optimality Theory in phonology from some of the most prominent researchers in the field. Contains 33 excerpts spanning a range of topics in phonology and including many never-before-published papers. Includes a lengthy excerpt from Prince and Smolensky’s foundational 1993 manuscript Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Includes introductory notes and study/research questions for each chapter.

Optimality Theory and Pragmatics
Optimality Theory and Pragmatics

Author: Reinhard Blutner

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2003-12-19

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0230501400

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Ten leading scholars provide exacting research results and a reliable and accessible introduction to the new field of optimality theoretic pragmatics. The book includes a general introduction that overviews the foundations of this new research paradigm. The book is intended to satisfy the needs of students and professional researchers interested in pragmatics and optimality theory, and will be of particular interest to those exploring the interfaces of formal pragmatics with grammar, semantics, philosophy of language, information theory and cognitive psychology.

Formal and Empirical Issues in Optimality Theoretic Syntax
Formal and Empirical Issues in Optimality Theoretic Syntax

Author: Peter Sells

Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 9781575862446

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This book collects recent work in OT-LFG (Optimality Theoretic Lexical Functional Grammar) which is developing the empirical coverage of the approach as well as the formal foundations of the OT approach. The papers deal with phenomena in a wide range of languages, including English, Fore, Hindi, Kashmiri, Korean, Marathi. Central to the general approach is the issue of typological implication and the notion of markedness. Additionally, some papers here take up issues related to language production and comprehension (in terms of bidirectional optimization), and some explore the formal foundations. This is a collection of papers which involve a new approach to syntax bringing together Optimality Theory (OT) and Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). Its importance is precisely in this new approach, which differs from other OT approaches to syntax.

Optimality Theory
Optimality Theory

Author: Alan Prince

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0470759399

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This book is the final version of the widely-circulated 1993 Technical Report that introduces a conception of grammar in which well-formedness is defined as optimality with respect to a ranked set of universal constraints. Final version of the widely circulated 1993 Technical Report that was the seminal work in Optimality Theory, never before available in book format. Serves as an excellent introduction to the principles and practice of Optimality Theory. Offers proposals and analytic commentary that suggest many directions for further development for the professional.