3 - The Results of Optimality Theory

Summary

In this chapter, I describe the main consequences of OT. In keeping with the overall goals of this book, the focus throughout the chapter is on results that are broadly applicable and on examples that clearly and simply illustrate those results. For the same reason, particular attention is given to architectural (near-imperatives: results that follow from the basic structure of OT, as described in Chapter 1, without too much reliance on parochial assumptions about linguistic representations or constraints.

This chapter is organized around the properties of the theory that lead to these results rather than around particular linguistic phenomena. There are three main sections: markedness/faithfulness interaction (§3.1), constraint violability (§3.2), and globality and parallelism (§3.3). Since these aspects of OT are not isolated from one another, there is inevitably some overlap among the sections and some room for disagreement about where to put particular topics. The cross-references and the FAQs will, I hope, aid readers in pulling the threads together.

Consequences of Markedness/Faithfulness Interaction

OT has two main types of constraints, markedness and faithfulness (§1.2.2). Markedness constraints evaluate the well-formedness of output candidates. Faithfulness constraints prohibit disparity between output candidates and the inputs that underlie them. The interaction of markedness and faithfulness constraints through language-particular ranking (§1.3) is essential to description and explanation in OT.

The effects of markedness/faithfulness interaction are diverse, and so the contents of this section range widely. The section begins (§3.1.1) with a review of the basics of interaction, covering some of the same ground as §1.3 but more rigorously.