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  • Formal and empirical issues in optimality theoretic syntax ed. by Peter Sells
  • Stuart Robinson
Formal and empirical issues in optimality theoretic syntax. Ed. by Peter Sells. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2001. Pp. 420. ISBN 1575862441. $24.95.

This is an edited volume of papers devoted to issues surrounding the application of optimality theory (OT) to the study of syntax within the framework of lexical-functional grammar (LFG).

The book contains nine papers, including an introduction which sets the stage by reviewing some of the larger issues at stake. In it, Peter Sells makes the important point that ‘in comparison to other styles of OT syntax . . . the OT-LFG model of syntax is a much purer instantiation of the original OT conception: a constraint-based direct evaluation of direct INPUT-OUTPUT relations’ (14).

The first three papers deal with larger topics in OT syntax, providing fairly detailed analyses of particular domains within various languages. The first paper, ‘Phrase structure, information structure, and resolution of mismatch’ by Hye-won Choi, deals with the interaction between the competing demands of phrase structure and information structure ordering principles in Catalan, English, and German. The next paper, ‘Markedness and word order freezing’ by Hanjung Lee, analyzes the effect of prominence hierarchies on constituent ordering in Hindi and Korean. The third paper, ‘Verb raising and phrase structure variation in OT’ by Yukiko Morimoto, examines verb raising in relativization in Bantu languages.

Three other papers apply OT to syntactic issues in specific languages. In ‘Optimal order and pied-piping in San Dionicio Zapotec’, George Aaron Broadwell looks at pied-piping and inversion in terms of competing precedence requirements (of interrogatives and heads for left-most position). In ‘Kashmiri case clitics and person hierarchy effects’, [End Page 187] Devyani Sharma analyzes the distribution of verbal case-marking clitics in terms of markedness hierarchies relating to person, case, and aspect. In ‘Linking, optionality, and ambiguity in Marathi’, Ash Asudeh examines the linking of arguments to grammatical functions.

The last two papers deal with formal issues in OT syntax. In ‘Generation and parsing in optimality theoretic syntax: Issues in the formalization of OT-LFG’, Jonas Kuhn looks at OT syntax from a computational point of view; in ‘Optimality theory style constraint ranking in large-scale LFG grammars’ by Anette Frank, Tracy Holloway King, Jonas Kuhn, and John T. Maxell, III, parsing issues for a large-scale, LFG-based grammar systems are taken up.

This book will hold some interest for syntacticians of all theoretical persuasions, but for those interested in LFG and OT, it is essential reading.

Stuart Robinson
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
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