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Harmonic Grammar (HG) and Optimality Theory (OT) are closely related formal frameworks for the study of language. In both, the structure of a given language is determined by the relative strengths of a set of constraints. They differ in how these strengths are represented: as numerical weights (HG) or as ranks (OT). Weighted constraints have advantages for the construction of accounts of language learning and other cognitive processes, partly because they allow for the adaptation of connectionist and statistical models. HG has been little studied in generative linguistics, however, largely due to influential claims that weighted constraints make incorrect predictions about the typology of natural languages, predictions that are not shared by the more popular OT. This paper makes the case that HG is in fact a promising framework for typological research, and reviews and extends the existing arguments for weighted over ranked constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it preferable to say "salt and pepper" over "pepper and salt?" Based on an analysis of 692 binomial tokens from online corpora, we show that a number of semantic, metrical, and frequency constraints contribute significantly to ordering preferences, overshadowing the phonological factors that have traditionally been considered important. The ordering of binomials exhibits a considerable amount of variation. For example, although "principal and interest" is the more frequent order, "interest and principal" also occurs. We consider three frameworks for analysis of this variation: traditional optimality theory, stochastic optimality theory, and logistic regression. Our best models—using logistic regression—predict 79.2% of the binomial tokens and 76.7% of types, and the remainder are predicted as less frequent—but not ungrammatical—variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses multi level Optimality Theory (OT) and the ways of dealing with stages in phonological processing. OT should aim at ways to incorporate multiple levels of phonological processing, rather than focus on retaining the single evaluation hypothesis. In an OT approach, the constraints responsible for preferred syllable content are active only at pre-phonetic levels of evaluation, whereas a constraint on segmental markedness, saying that consonants should be as consonantal as possible and therefore nonsonorant is active at the pre-phonetic, as well as at the phonetic level. The tools of OT seem particularly suited to give a representation of the conflict between markedness constraints with opposing output goals Aphasia, in this approach, comprises the lowering of faithfulness constraints at the affected level of processing. Language breakdown provides a window on the workings of the language system and linguistic theories should be able to deal with the view thus offered.