Keller, Frank. 2006. Linear Optimality Theory as a Model of Gradience in Grammar. In Gisbert Fanselow, Caroline Féry, Ralph Vogel, and Matthias Schlesewsky, eds., Gradience in Grammar: Generative Perspectives, 270-287. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This paper provides an overview of Linear Optimality Theory (LOT), a variant of Optimality Theory (OT) designed for the modeling of gradient acceptability judgment data. We summarize the empirical properties of gradient data that have been reported in the experimental literature, and use them to motivate the design of LOT. We discuss LOT's notions of constraint competition and optimality, as well as a new formulation of ranking argumentation, which makes it possible to apply standard parameter estimation techniques to LOT. Then the LOT model is compared to Standard OT, to Harmonic Grammar, and to recently proposed probabilisitic versions of OT.
@InCollection{Keller:06,
author = {Frank Keller},
title = {Linear Optimality Theory as a Model of Gradience in Grammar},
crossref = {Fanselow:ea:06},
pages = {270--287}
}
@Book{Fanselow:ea:06,
editor = {Gisbert Fanselow and Caroline F{\'e}ry and Ralph Vogel
and Matthias Schlesewsky},
title = {Gradience in Grammar: Generative Perspectives},
booktitle = {Gradience in Grammar: Generative Perspectives},
publisher = {Oxford University Press},
year = 2006,
address = {Oxford}
}