Optimality Theory in Syntax: Universal Constraints and the Lexicon

最优性理论的核心思想在于：约束是普遍的。约束可能会被违反。语法是约束的等级。在一组相互竞争的候选人中，最优形式是语法的，所有非最佳候选人都是不符合语法的。按照以下方式从竞争者类别中选择给定输入的最佳输出形式：对于涉及它的每个成对竞争，最好地满足竞争者冲突的最高排名约束的形式是“最优的”。虽然OT最初是为音系学分析而发展起来的，但它是约束交互的一般理论，最近的几项研究表明，它以有趣的方式扩展到句法领域。本提案中描述的研究建立在这一早期工作的基础上，并解决了与句法理论有关的两个基本问题，这两个问题可以在OT假设下以与先前方法显著不同的方式解决。第一个问题涉及一种语言的句法和它的词汇之间的关系。人们通常认为，一种语言的词汇决定其句法。事实上，有人断言，语言之间的所有语法差异都可以归结为词汇差异。当前的项目采取了不同的路线，目的是展示语言的许多在语法上有意义的词汇属性(也许是所有？)可以从它们的语法中派生，即从构成它们的语法的普遍约束的排序中派生。第二个问题涉及约束的普遍性，这个问题显然与约束可违犯性的概念密切相关。OT的核心假设是，每一种语言的语法中都存在着各种制约因素。这与约束“参数”不同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必完全相同。项目研究的重点是关于普遍语法的这一假设所提出的预测和问题

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