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CHAPTER 4
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
OPTIMALITY THEORY (OT)
Optimality Theory (OT)! is a generative grammar-based formal framework
attempting to apply generative grammatical rules in order to describe how
natural languages work. It is currently one of the dominant paradigms in
phonology, and is a relatively new framework used in syntax. Although OT is
a generative-grammar-based theoretical framework, its main premise is that
— instead of focusing on the input representations of linguistic utterances,
which is in the primary focus of generative grammar — the significant
regularities of natural languages can be understood by analyzing the output
structure, the surface realizations of utterances. As opposed to the method of
generative grammar, which turns the input configuration into potential output
structures (surface realizations) by applying generative processes, OT claims
that relying on an algorithmic-based representation of empirically observed
output representations, the actual rules governing linguistic mechanisms can
be understood. While generative grammar sets rules of well-formedness, OT
moves toward setting “constraints” of well-formedness.
OT premises that actual speech production is the result of a derivational
process between a generative device (GEN), a set of ranked constraints (CON),
and an evaluative part (EVAL).
As a derivational process, OT always proceeds from an underlying
representation (UR), which is fed as input to the generative (GEN) function.
GEN is a cognitive device of universal grammar that generates constraints
through which the underlying candidates (inputs) have to pass before surface
realization (output). The underlying candidates are in conflict with each
100 Alan Prince — Paul Smolensky, Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative
Grammar, Manuscript, University of Colorado and Rutgers University, 1993; Alan Prince
— Paul Smolensky, Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar, Mas¬
sachusetts, USA, Blackwell, 2004
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