Optimality Theory is a general model of how grammars are structured. This article surveys the motivations for Optimality Theory, its core principles, and the basics of analysis. It also addresses some frequently asked questions about this theory and offers suggestions for further reading.

GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY [q.v.] aims to construct a predictive theory of natural language sound systems, rooted in a finely-detailed account of the principles defining linguistic representations and the possible relations between them. Within these broad goals, OPTIMALITY THEORY (OT) develops in the context of specific empirical theses about the way phonological systems are organized. We identify t...

Lee, Jae-Young. 2004. Lexicon-dependent Optimality Theory. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology. 10.1. 69–88. This paper aims at providing an extended Optimality Theory (OT) in which human mental lexicon is highly valued in phonological grammar. Current mainstream OT does not focus its concern on the lexicon. This paper seeks to offer a more straightforward explanation for English all...

A. Overview (1) Organization: a. What is generative linguistics and phonology? b. Rule-based phonology c. How OT works d. Predictions of the model e. Acquisition and OT f. Current developments g. Resources B. What is generative linguistics and phonology? (2) Competence vs. performance Generative linguists are interested in describing what a speaker knows about their language, rather than in des...

The mechanism of constraint re-ranking basis makes Optimality Theory (OT) a typologically oriented theory of phonology. Permuting the prioritization of constraints on a language-specific basis generates a factorial typology of phonological patterns. Patterns generated by an optimality-theoretic account can be compared with the set of attested patterns found in languages of the world to determin...

the purpose of this research is to analyze differential adpositional case marking (dacm) in vafsi within ot framework by using the generalization of aissen’s (2003) differential object marking (dom) model. while bossong (1985) has traced dom in more than 300 languages, dacm has not been investigated typologically, yet. dacm, as a branch of differential case marking (dcm), questions the effect o...

In Optimality Theory, an important tool for accounting for morpho-phonological processes is output-output correspondence. A development of this approach is Transderivational Anti-Faithfulness (TAF), constituting a reversal of faithfulness. This article will explore the nature of TAF, in order to test this approach as an extension of Optimality Theory. The example of morphologically triggered ac...

metathesis as a phonological phenomenon in order to reverse segments has been focus of many studies. metathesis according to the range of application can be sporadic or regular. it links synchronic studies of language to diachronic ones and thereby has some consequences for phonological theory. the central goal of this paper is to elucidate the conditions under which metathesis occurs synchroni...