Optimality Theory: An Overview

This volume provides the first survey of optimality theory –– arguably the linguistic theory of the 1990s. As a general model, optimality theory has wide applications to a variety of areas in cognitive science, and especially to those related to language: acquisition, production, perception, and deficits. The book leads the reader to an understanding of optimality theory via the exploration and resolution of specific problems in phonology, morphology, and syntax, but presumes virtually no background knowledge in linguistics. Contributors include Diana Archangeli, Michael Hammond, Douglas Pulleybank, Kevin Russel, and David Pesetsky, and Margaret Speas. Taken together, it will be essential reading for advanced undergraduates, graduates and researchers in linguistics and cognitive science.

1. Optimality Theory: An Introduction to Linguistics for the 1990s: Diana B. Archangeli (University of Arizona). 2. Optimality Theory and Features: Douglas Pulleybank (University of British Columbia). 3. Optimality Theory and Prosody: Michael Hammond (University of Arizona). 4. Optimality Theory and Morphology: Kevin Russell (University of Manitoba). 5. Optimality Theory and Syntax: Null Arguments and Control: Margaret Speas (University of Massachusetts at Amherst). 6. Optimality Theory and Syntax: Parallels with Phonology: David Pesetsky (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Diana B. Archangeli is Professor of Linguistics at The University of Arizona. She received her PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1984, taught previously at the University of Illinois. She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Faculty Award for Women. In addition to several articles on phonology, she is the co–author with Douglas Pulleybank of Grounded Morphology. D. Terence Langendoen is Professor and Head of Linguistics at The University of Arizona. He received his PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1964, and has taught at Ohio State University and City University of New York, He is the author of The London School of Linguistics, The Study of Syntax, and Essentials of English Grammar, and co–author with Paul Postal of The Vastness of Natural Language. He was Secretary–Treasurer of the Linguistics Society of America from 1984 to 1988, and will become editor of Linguistics Abstracts in 1997.

"This book does offer a well–rounded entry point into the theory for anyone with some basic training in linguistics, including researchers who wish to take a crash course in the theory." Second Language Research