Optimality Theory and Pragmatics

REINHARD BLUTNER is Privatdozent at the Humboldt-University in Berlin, and is currently a lecturer in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include cognitive psychology, theoretical linguistics and computer science. - HENK ZEEVAT is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. His specialisation is dialogue systems and pragmatics.

'This collection clearly demonstrates that Optimality Theory finds fruitful applications in the domain of pragmatics. The papers show how to overcome the traditional gap between linguistic meaning and utterance meaning. Conceptions like relevance, conversational implicature, pragmatic anomaly, grammaticalization, recoverability, and constructional iconicity appear in a new light'. - Manfred Krifka, Professor in General Linguistics, Insititute for German Speech and Linguistics, Humboldt University, Germany 'Though the idea of optimization was present in the pragmatic enterprise from the very beginning, we had to wait for this collection in order to see how to integrate pragmatics into Optimality Theory.' - Professor Paul Smolensky, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University

• Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Editors' Introduction: Pragmatics and Optimality Theory; R.Blutner and H.Zeevat On the Interpretation of Stressed Pronouns; H.de Hoop Optimization in Focus Identification; P.Hendriks Optimality Theoretic Pragmatics and Binding Phenomena; J.Mattausch Particles: Pre-supposition Triggers, Context Markers, or Speech Act Markers; H.Zeevat Input-Output Mismatches in Optimality Theory; D.Beaver and H.Lee On the Optimality Theory Status of 'Unambiguous Encoding'; H-M.Gärtner Relevance and Bidirectional Optimality Theory; R.van Rooy Remarks on the Architecture of Optimality Theory Syntax Grammars; R.Vogel Variation in Demonstrative Choice in Swedish; J.Spenader Learning Constraint Subhierarchies: The Bidirectional Gradual Learning Algorithm; G.Jäger References Index