Optimality Theory (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Optimality theory assumes that these components are universal. Differences in grammars reflect different rankings of the universal constraint set, CON. Language acquisition can be described as the process of adjusting the ranking of these constraints. Optimality theory was originally proposed by the linguists Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky in 1993, and later expanded by Prince and John J. McCarthy. Although much of the interest in optimality theory has been associated with its use in phonology, the area to which optimality theory was first applied, the theory is also applicable to other subfields of linguistics (e.g. syntax and semantics). Optimality theory is usually considered a development of generative grammar, which shares its focus on the investigation of universal principles, linguistic typology and language acquisition.