The Complexity of Ranking Hypotheses in Optimality Theory

The complexity of hypotheses in Optimality Theory

Given a constraint set with k constraints in the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), what is its capacity as a classification scheme for linguistic data? One useful measure of this capacity is the size of the largest data set (i.e. set of input-output pairs) of which each subset is consistent with a different grammar hypothesis. This metric is known as the Vapnik-Chervonenkis Dimension (VCD) a...

Optimality Theoretic Account of Acquisition of Consonant Clusters of English Syllables by Persian EFL Learners*

This study accounts for the acquisition of the consonant clusters of English syllable structures both in onset and coda positions by Persian EFL learners. Persian syllable structure is "CV(CC)", composed of one consonant at the initial position and two optional consonants at the final position; whereas English syllable structure is "(CCC)V(CCCC)". Therefore, Persian EFL learners need to resolve...

Optimality Of Monetary And Fiscal Policies In Iran: An Application Of The Stochastic Optimal Control Theory

The Learnability of Optimality Theory: An Algorithm and Some Basic Complexity Results

If Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1991, 1993) is correct, Universal Grammar provides a set of universal constraints which are highly general, inherently conflicting, and consequently rampantly violated in the surface forms of languages. A language’s grammar ranks the universal constraints in a dominance hierarchy, higher-ranked constraints taking absolute priority over lower-ranked const...

On the Complexity of the Problem of the Acquisition of Phonotactics in Optimality Theory

The problem of the acquisition of phonotactics in Optimality Theory is formulated as the problem of learning a ranking consistent with a finite set of data that furthermore corresponds to a smallest (w.r.t. set inclusion) language. The paper focuses on the universal formulation of the problem, whereby generating function and constraint set vary arbitrarily as inputs of the problem. It is shown ...