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...

Hindko is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Hazara and Azad Kashmir regions. The current research aims to analyze interlanguage syllabification of English by Pakistani-Hindko speakers under optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993). study argues that syllabify syllables influenced L1. uses elicitation method collect data. was analyzed framework. analyses markedness alignment constrain...

The primary goal of this paper is to develop an Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004) analysis of the root and pattern morphology of Coptic. Coptic (spoken ca. 300-1300 C.E.) was the last stage of the Ancient Egyptian language, and its root and pattern morphology has not previously been analyzed from a synchronic perspective. Specifically, I aim to determine whether the consonantal...

The ability of weighted constraints to model certain patterns that elude ranked constraints has often been taken to be typologically problematic (e.g., Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004, Legendre, Sorace & Smolensky 2006). This paper argues that the greater power of weighted constraints can actually be advantageous, permitting a smaller set of more general constraints to be employed in the analysis ...

This paper, inspired by the collection of papers in Wang & Smith (1997), discusses a restriction in synchronic Mandarin Chinese which involves voiced stops, rising tone and nasal codas. The paper argues that this restriction can be described only as the result of the combined action of two constraints, i.e. a ‘local constraint conjunction’. We discuss the exact formulation of this conjunction a...

Optimality theory (OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993) has in a short time proven influential in theoretical phonology, and to a lesser degree in theoretical syntax. One of the main attractions of the theory is its strong commitment to typology. The basic hypothesis is that there is a set of universal constraints and languages differ only in how they rank the constraints. Since constraints are viola...

The object of the present work is the analysis of the convergence behaviour of a learning algorithm for grammars belonging to a special version – the maximum entropy version – of stochastic Optimality Theory. Stochastic Optimality Theory is like its deterministic predecessor, namely Optimality Theory as introduced by Prince and Smolensky, in that both are theories of universal grammar in the se...

Optimality Theory (OT) is built on output constraints. These constraints impose conflicting demands on candidates and are all violable, with precedence regulated by universal and languageparticular ranking specifications (see Prince & Smolensky 1993). As a result, constraints are minimally violated in winning candidates. An output-oriented theory of this kind needs to pay special attention to p...