Optimality-Theoretic Syntax

Optimality-Theoretic Syntax PDF Author: Geraldine Legendre
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262263504
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
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

Optimality-Theoretic Syntax PDF Author: Geraldine Legendre
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262263504
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 580

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 Theory

Optimality Theory PDF Author: Joost Dekkers (linguiste)
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 9780198238447
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
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.

Bidirectional Optimality Theory

Bidirectional Optimality Theory PDF Author: Anton Benz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255636
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
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-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics PDF Author: Géraldine Legendre
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198757115
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
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.

Optimality Theory

Optimality Theory PDF Author: Rene Kager
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521589802
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
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.

A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory

A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory PDF Author: John J. McCarthy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521796446
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Explains and explores the central premises of OT and the results of their praxis.

Formal and Empirical Issues in Optimality Theoretic Syntax

Formal and Empirical Issues in Optimality Theoretic Syntax PDF Author: Peter Sells
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
ISBN: 9781575862439
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
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 in Phonology

Optimality Theory in Phonology PDF Author: John J. McCarthy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470755520
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
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.

Optimizing Adverb Positions

Optimizing Adverb Positions PDF Author: Eva Engels
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255644
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Adverb positions vary within a single language as well as across diverse languages. Based on the study of adverbs in English, French and German, this monograph shows that the distribution of adverbs is influenced by various factors at distinct levels of linguistic representation – comprising semantics, syntax, phonology and information structure –, which interact in determining adverb positions. The results of the investigation are formulated within the theoretical framework of Optimality Theory, which captures the complex interaction of these factors by hierarchically ranked constraints, deriving cross-linguistic variation of adverb positions by differences in the language-specific constraint hierarchies. The book is divided into two parts: While Part I examines adverb positions in general, Part II investigates under which circumstances an adverb may attach to a phonetically empty constituent in the languages under discussion. The book appeals to a linguistic audience interested in Germanic and Romance languages as well as in theoretical syntax in general.

Optimality Theory and Language Change

Optimality Theory and Language Change PDF Author: D.E. Holt
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401001952
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
This work discusses many optimization and linguistic issues in great detail. It treats the history of a variety of languages, including English, French, Germanic, Galician/ Portuguese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish and shows that the application of Optimality Theory allows for innovative and improved analyses. It contains a complete bibliography on OT and language change. It is of interest to historical linguists, researchers into OT and linguistic theory, and phonologists and syntacticians with an interest in historical change.