Appendix B - Symbols and Abbreviations

Summary

Standard Symbols

≫ A ≫ B means ‘constraint A dominates constraint B’

≻ X ≻ Y means ‘the linguistic structure X is more harmonic than structure Y (relative to some shared input and some constraint hierarchy)’ (§1.1.2).

> X > Y means ‘the linguistic structure X is more prominent than structure Y’ (§1.2.3, §3.1.5.4).

& [A&B]_δ is the local conjunction of constraints A and B in domain δ. It is violated if and only if both A and B are violated in some δ (§1.2.3). In local self-conjunction, [A&A]§ is violated if and only if there are two instances of A violation in some δ (§1.5 ender5).

{ } {A, B} is the set consisting of A and B. If A and B are constraints, {A, B} appears sometimes in constraint hierarchies to emphasize that the ranking of A with respect to B cannot be determined (or is deliberately tied – §4.5). For example, [{A, B} ≫ C] means ‘A and B dominate C’ with no ranking specified between A and B.

Virgules enclose underlying forms (inputs).

Brackets surround some surface forms (outputs). Italics are sometimes used instead.

! n! is the product 1*2*…*n – 1*n. For example, 4! = 1*2*3*4 = 24. The number of distinct ways to permute n objects is n! (because there are n choices for the first object, n – 1 choices for the second, and so on).

LF or Logical Form (only in quotations from Chomsky).