(Warning: The versions downloadable from this site are earlier versions. The author's home page may contain a more actual version. Alternatively, and highly recommended, get a hardcopy of the published paper)

 
• Jane Grimshaw

Projection, Heads, and Optimality (1995)
Published  in Linguistic Inquiry 28 (1997) 373-422.

"The goal of this paper is to show that the distribution of heads in English clauses, including inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb, and the appearance of the auxiliary verb do and the complementizer that, can be explained by the interaction of universal constraints, under Optimality Theory as proposed in Prince and Smolensky 1993.
 

• Joan Bresnan

Optimal Syntax (1998)
To be published in Optimality Theory: Phonology, Syntax and Acquisition, edited by Joost Dekkers, Frank van der Leeuw and Jeroen van de Weijer (Oxford University Press).

 
"Most OT syntax work to date has taken the output to consist of representational simulations of transformational derivations using chains and traces. The purpose of these notes is to show that there may be advantages, both conceptual and empirical, to adopting a more radically nonderivational theory of gen, based on a parallel correspondence theory of syntactic structures."
 
• Joan Bresnan

The Emergence of the Unmarked Pronoun (2001)
To be published in Optimality-theoretic Syntax, edited by Geraldine Legendre, Sten Vikner, and Jane Grimshaw.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

 "In sum, the present theory of pronominal markedness can explain the existence of universal (or near-universal) asymmetries in the typology of  pronominal systems, the preponderant use of free pronouns in pidgins of typologically diverse sources, and the emergence of free pronouns to fill gaps in the system of reduced pronouns within individual languages. These preliminary resuls suggest that it is indeed possible to develop a nonderivational theory of markedness for syntax analoguous to the OT theories developed in phonology, but of course much further work is required."
 

• Hanyung Lee:
  Markedness and Word Order Freezing (2001)

• Petra Hendriks & Helen de Hoop

Optimality Theoretic Semantics (1999)
Published in Linguistics & Philosophy 24 (2001) 1-32

"The aim of this article is to elucidate the processes that characterize natural language interpretation. The basic hypothesis is that natural language interpretation can be characterized as an optimization problem. This innovative view on interpretation is shown to account for the crucial role of contextual information while avoiding certain well-known problems associated with compositionality. This will become particularly clear in the context of incomplete expressions. Our approach takes as a point of departure total freedom of interpretation in combination with the parallel application of soft constraints on possible interpretations. These constraints can be contextual, intonational or syntactic in nature. The integration of pragmatic and syntactic/semantic information in a system of ranked constraints is proposed to correctly derive the optimal interpretations in cases of nominal anaphorization, determiner quantification and
elliptical comparatives.
 

• Reinhard Blutner

Some Aspects of Optimality in Natural Language Interpretation (1999)
To appear in Journal of Semantics  17.3 (2000)

"In a series of papers, Petra Hendriks, Helen de Hoop and Henriëtte de Swart have applied optimality theory (OT) to semantics. These authors argue that there is a fundamental difference between the form of OT as used in phonology, morphology and syntax on the one hand and its form as used in semantics on the other hand. Whereas in the first case OT takes the point of view of the speaker, in the second case the point of view of the hearer is taken. The aim of this paper is to argue that the proper treatment of OT in natural language interpretation has to take both perspectives at the same time. A conceptual framework is established that realizes the integration of both perspectives. It will be argued that this framework captures the essence of the Gricean maxims and gives a precise explication of Atlas & Levinson‘s (1981) idea of balancing between informativeness and efficiency in natural language processing. The ideas are then applied to resolve some puzzles in natural language interpretation."
 

• Paul Dekker & Robert van Rooy

Bi-Directional Optimality Theory: An Application of Game Theory  (1999)
To appear in Journal of Semantics  17.3 (2000)

 
"Optimality Theory catches on in linguistics, first in phonology, then in syntax, and recently also at the semantics / pragmatics interface. In this paper we point at some parallels between some principles employed in optimality theoretic interpretation, and some notions from the well-established field of Game Theory. Optimality theoretic interpretation can be defined as what we call an "interpretation game", and optimality itself can be viewed as a solution concept for a game. More in particular, optimality can be characterized in terms of the game-theoretical notion of a `Nash Equilibrium'."
 

• Gerhard Jäger
  Some Notes on the Formal Properties of Bidirectional Optimality Theory (2000)

  "In this paper, we discuss some formal properties of the model of bidirectional Optimality Theory that was developed in Blutner 2000. We investigate the conditions under which bidirectional optimization is a well-defined notion, and we give a conceptually simpler reformulation of Blutner’s definition. In the second part of the paper, we show that bidirectional optimization can be modeled by means of finite state techniques. There we rely heavily on the related work of Frank and Satta 1998 about unidirectional optimization."
   

• Henk Zeevat

The Asymmetry of Optimality Theoretic Syntax and Semantics
To appear in Journal of Semantics  17.3 (2000)

"In this paper, I have shown that a theory of semantic interpretation on the basis of OT syntax is feasible, though it has to be supplemented with some quite general semantic and pragmatic principles. The place of the Gricean maxims within this scheme has so far not been explored properly. E.g. relevance and quantity must play a role. Superoptimality (or weak superoptimality) and the speaker and hearer games developed by (Dekker & Van Rooy) continue to be relevant, but do not penetrate syntax as such."
 

• Judith Aissen

Differential Object Marking: Iconicity vs. Economy

 
"This analysis developed in this paper is based on a conception of DOM (Differential Object Marking) which is well-developed in the functional and typological literature cited earlier. In that conception, DOM involves the morphological marking of those nominals which are most marked as objects. The goal here has been to show that this conception can be expressed quite directly within a formal approach to grammar based on Optimality Theory. Central to the account is the operation of harmonic alignment which derives constraints that express the relative markedness of the various nominal types in the grammatical object function."
 
• Arto Anttila & Vivienne Fong

The Partitive Constraint in Optimality Theory (2000)
To appear in Journal of Semantics  17.4 (2000)

An OT-account to Finish partitive is proposed that makes use of a partially ordered OT grammar. Partial ordering of constraints is crucial in deriving preferences in expression as well as interpretation, including blocking effects.
 

• Paul Boersma & Bruce Hayes

Empirical Tests of the Gradual Learning Algorithm (1999)
Published in Linguistic Inquiry 32 (2001) 45-86.

 
"The Gradual Learning Algorithm (Boersma 1997) is a constraint ranking algorithm for learning Optimality-theoretic grammars. The purpose of this article is to assess the capabilities of the Gradual Learning Algorithm, particularly in comparison with the Constraint Demotion algorithm of Tesar and Smolensky (1993, 1996, 1998), which initiated the learnability research program for Optimality Theory. We argue that the Gradual Learning Algorithm has a number of special advantages: it can learn free variation, avoid failure when confronted with noisy learning data, and account for gradient well-formedness judgments. The case studies we examine involve Ilokano reduplication and metathesis, Finnish genitive plurals, and the distribution of English light and dark /!/."
 

• Henk Zeevat

Explaining Presupposition Triggers (to appear)

"This paper proposes three revisions to the standard view on presupposition: the employment of optimality theory for the defaults and preferences, the possibility of inaccessible antecedents for presupposition resolution and a fine-grained classification  of presupposition triggers based on the availability of expression alternatives and the requirement of the presupposition. The treatment deals with some phenomena that have not been addressed by current presupposition theories."
 

• David Beaver

Centering and the Optimization of Discourse (2000)
To appear in Linguistics & Philosophy

"In this paper the Centering model of anaphora resolution and discourse coherence (Grosz, Joshi and Weinstein, 1983) is reformulated in terms of Optimality Theory ( ot ) (Prince and Smolensky 1993). A fi rst version of this reformulated model is proven to be descritively equivalent to an earlier algorithmic statement of Centering due to Brennan, Friedman and Pollard (1987). However, the new model is stated declaratively, and makes clearer the status of the various constraints used in the theory. In the second part of the paper, the model is extended in various ways, demonstrating the advantages of the ot reformulation. First to be considered are alternative versions of the constraints on topic-hood (how the "backward-looking center" is identified) and salience (the definition of the "forward-looking center list"). Then, after relating the model to recent proposals in ot semanantics and pragmatics (Blutner 2000, de Hoop and Hendriks 2000), three new applications are described. It is shown how the theory can be applied to natural language generation, to the evaluation/optimization of complete texts, and to the interpretation of accented pronouns"
 

• Bruce Tesar & Paul Smolensky

Learnability in Optimality Theory (short version) (1996)
Published in  Linguistic Inquiry 29 (1998) 229-268.

"The central claim of this paper is that the character of the restrictions imposed by Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1991, 1993) have demonstrable and significant consequences for central questions of learnability.,,,Section 1 formulates the Optimality Theoretic learning problem we address. Section 2 addresses this problem by developing the principle of Constraint Demotion, which is incorporated into an error-driven learning procedure in section 3. Section 4 takes up some issues and open questions raised by Constraint Demotion, and section 5 concludes. Section 6 is an appendix containing the formal definitions, theorems, and proofs."
 

• Reinhard Blutner

Review on Tesar/Smolensky: Learnability in Optimality Theory (MIT Press 2000)
Published in Linguistice and Philosophy
 
• Martin Haspelmath

Optimality and Diachronic Adaptation (1999)
Published in Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 18.2 (1999) 180-205.

 
"In this programmatic paper, I argue that the universal constraints of Optimality Theory (OT) need to be complemented by a theory of diachronic adaptation. OT constraints are traditionally stipulated as part of Universal Grammar, but this misses the generalization that the grammatical constraints normally correspond to constraints on language use. As in biology, observed adaptive patterns in language can be explained through diachronic evolutionary processes, as the unintended cumulative outcome of numerous individual intentional actions. The theory of diachronic adaptation also provides a solution to the teleology problem, which has often been used as an argument against usage-based functional explanations. Finally, I argue against the view that the grammatical constraints could be due to accident. Thus, an adaptive explanation must eventually be found, whether at the level of language use and diachronic change (as proposed in this paper), or at the level of biological evolutionary change."