This is an introduction to Optimality Theory, whose central idea is that surface forms of
language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. A surface form is' …

Word order is one of the major properties on which languages are compared and its study is
fundamental to linguistics. This comprehensive survey provides an up-to-date, critical …

Highlighting the close relationship between linguistic explanation and learnability, Bruce
Tesar and Paul Smolensky examine the implications of Optimality Theory (OT) for language …

Most linguistic theories assume that each grammatical relation is established in a unique
structural configuration. Neeleman and Weerman take issue with this view, arguing for a …

The main goal of this article is to develop an approach to free-word-order structures in
German that reconciles the findings of two different lines of research: competition-based …

This article pursues the idea that properties of the Minimalist Program (MP, Chomsky 1995,
Chomsky 2001) and Optimality Theory (OT, Prince & Smolensky 2004, McCarthy & Prince …

This paper investigates the syntax of comparative deletion and comparative subdeletion in
English and argues that the apparently paradoxical behavior of these two types of clausal …

To acquire information is very important to the human species. Apparently, most if not all
languages have developed some particular means dedicated to eliciting information …

Below, I shall argue that all ten continental West Germanic languages or dialects (Yiddish,
Dutch, Afrikaans, West Flemish, Frisian, German, Swabian, and the three Swiss German …

This dissertation deals with dislocation structures, particularly with Clitic Right Dislocation
and with Clitic Left Dislocation. The main guideline of the analysis is that the form of syntactic …