Optimality Theory

Alan Prince is Professor of Linguistics and a member of the Cognitive Science Center at Rutgers University and is, along with Paul Smolensky, one of the founders of Optimality Theory. He has published in journals such as Linguistic Inquiry, Science, Cognition, and Critical Inquiry. Paul Smolensky is Professor of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University. His publications include Learnability in Optimality Theory (with Bruce Tesar, 2000) and Mathematical Perspectives on Neural Networks (edited with Michael Mozer and David Rumelhart, 1996).

“This is a very important book. Optimality Theory has transformed the field of linguistics more than almost any other development of the past half-century, and Prince and Smolensky started it all.” John J. McCarthy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "OT does not need to permanently influence linguistic theory: it has already done so. Between 1993 and 2004, Prince and Smolensky’s Optimality Theory was by far the most widely circulated manuscript among phonologists. Fortunately, it is now available for a larger audience in this text edition." René Kager, Utrecht University

• Prefatory Note ixAcknowledgments xPart I Optimality and Constraint Interaction 11Part II Syllable Theory 101Part III Issues and Answers in Optimality Theory 203Appendix 258References 266Index of Constraints 281Index of Languages 283General Index 284