Optimality Theory in Syntax: Universal Constraints and the Lexicon

优选论（OT）的核心在于这些思想： 限制是普遍的。 限制可能会被违反。 语法是约束的排序。 从一组竞争候选人中选出最佳形式 是合乎语法的，所有非最佳候选项都是 不合语法 对于给定的输入，一个最优的输出形式是从竞争者中选择的：对于每一个涉及它的成对竞争，最好地满足竞争者冲突的最高等级约束的形式是“最优的”。 优选论，虽然最初是为语音分析而发展的，但它是一种约束相互作用的一般理论，最近的几项研究表明，它以有趣的方式扩展到句法领域。在这个建议中描述的研究建立在这个早期的工作，并解决了两个基本的问题，句法理论，可以解决的方式显着不同于以前的方法在OT假设。 第一个问题涉及语言的句法和词汇之间的关系。人们通常认为，一种语言的词汇决定了它的句法。事实上，有人断言，语言之间的所有语法变异都可以归结为词汇差异。目前的项目采取了不同的路线，旨在表明语言的许多语法上重要的词汇属性（也许是所有？）可以从它们的语法中导出，即从构成它们的语法的普遍约束的排序中导出。 第二个问题涉及约束的普遍性，这个问题显然与约束的可违反性的概念有着核心联系。优选论的核心假设是，每一种约束都存在于每一种语言的语法中。这与约束“参数化”变化的观点形成鲜明对比;一种观点认为，一种语言中的约束形式不需要在所有语言中都相同。该项目的研究主要集中在普遍语法假设的预测和问题上

The core of Optimality Theory (OT) lies in these ideas: Constraints are universal. Constraints can be violated. Grammars are rankings of constraints. The optimal form from among the set of competing candidates is grammatical, all non-optimal candidates are ungrammatical. An optimal output form for a given input is selected from among the class of competitors in the following way: A form which, for every pairwise competition involving it, best satisfies the highest-ranking constraint on which the competitors conflict, is "optimal". OT, while originally developed for phonological analysis, is a general theory of constraint interaction, and several recent pieces of research suggest that it extends in interesting ways to the domain of syntax. The research described in this proposal builds upon this earlier work, and addresses two fundamental questions concerning syntactic theory which can be addressed under OT assumptions in ways which differ significantly from prior approaches. The first question concerns the relationship between the syntax of a language and its lexicon. The position is often taken that the lexicon of a language determines its syntax. Indeed it has been asserted that all grammatical variation among languages is reducible to lexical differences. The current project takes a different line, and aims to show that many grammatically significant lexical properties of languages (perhaps all?) can be derived from their grammars, i.e. from the ranking of universal constraints which constitutes their grammars. The second question concerns the universality of constraints, a question that is clearly tied in a central way to the idea of constraint violability. The core hypothesis of OT is that every constraint is present in the grammar of every language. This contrasts sharply with the view that constraints vary "parametrically"; a view in which the form a constraint takes in one language need not be the same in all. The project research focuses strongly on the predictions and problems raised by this hypothesis about universal grammar