Phonologists have been long concerned with finding phonetic properties which allow phonological patterns to be seen as ‘natural’ or ‘grounded’ (e.g. Stampe (1973), Hooper [Bybee] (1976), Ohala (1990), Archangeli and Pulleyblank (1994)). With the advent of Optimality Theory(Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004), this often takes the form of identifying functional grounding for specific OT constraints...

In this paper I will discuss certain cases in Japanese and Korean morphosyntax where forms compete to express the same semantic and grammatical information, and attempt to show that in each instance the most economical form is chosen. Presenting an account in terms of Optimality Theory (OT; see Prince and Smolensky (1993), Grimshaw (1995)), I will argue that constraints such as ‘Avoid Word’ and...

Adapting arguments from Eisner (1997, 2000), this remark provides a simple proof that the generation problem for Optimality Theory (OT, Prince and Smolensky 2004) is NP-hard. The proof needs only the binary evaluation of constraints and uses only constraints generally employed in the OT literature. In contrast, rule-based derivational systems are easily computable, belonging to the class of pol...

In Lombardi (1996) I propose a set of constraints within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993) that account for patterns of obstruent devoicing and assimilation phenomena in the world's languages. Rerankings of these constraints produce only patterns in which voicing assimilation is regressive. However, there are cases of progressive voicing assimilation. I will argue in this paper that...

Recent work in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993, to appear) has suggested that phonological regularities can be explained without reference to phonological rules, strictly in terms of constraints on representational wellformedness. A unique aspect of Optimality Theory (OT) is that candidates are evaluated in parallel: there is no serial derivation. Given th...

Recent work in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993, to appear) has suggested that phonological regularities can be explained without reference to phonological rules, strictly in terms of constraints on representational wellformedness. A unique aspect of Optimality Theory (OT) is that candidates are evaluated in parallel: there is no serial derivation. Given th...

Abstract This paper develops a theory of footing in Harmonic Serialism (HS; Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004; McCarthy 2000, 2016) where Con contains only directionally evaluated constraints (Eisner 2002; Lamont 2019, 2022 , b ). Directional harmonically order candidates by the location violations rather than total number violations. A central result adopting directional evaluation is that cons...

In this squib, I present an alternative view of the Gen and Eval mechanisms that lie at the heart of Optimality Theory (“OT”) (see Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993). As originally conceived, Gen is a pattern generator which creates an infinite set of possible phonological realizations of a lexical input string (“candidates”). Eval then evaluates the entire (infinite) set to d...

In this paper, I will give a detailed account of vowel harmony and vowel dissimilation in Yucatec Maya. These phenomena provide insights for the treatment of assimilation in Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), as well as for the organisation of phonological features. The theoretical topics to be dealt with are (i.) an adequate formalisation of phonological feature assimilation within C...

The Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, 2000) and Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004) are not alternative theories logically inconsistent with each other. Optimality Theory is a theory of how universal constraints of grammar interact (Prince and Smolensky 1993, Grimshaw 2005). Minimalism, as Chomsky notes (2000:41), is a research program –not a theory– investigating to what extent...