The Mother of All Tableaux - Order, Equivalence, and Geometry in the Large-scale Structure of Optimality Theory - Nazarré Merchant
Analysis of the MOAT
The Mother of All Tableaux - Order, Equivalence, and Geometry in the Large-scale Structure of Optimality Theory - Nazarré Merchant
Nazarré Merchant [+]
Eckerd College, St Petersburg, Florida
Alan Prince [+]
Independent Scholar
Description
The MOAT is related to another structure, which derives directly from the set of all VTs giving rise to a typology. From this relation, we deduce the main result: that the MOAT uniquely characterizes a typology, uncovering a number of properties of OT grammars along the way. We go on to examine the logical structure that inheres in Border Point Pairs, introducing the ercoid, which provides the hidden microstructure from which the three-valued logic of OT emerges. This is by far the most technical chapter, though the formal ideas involved are of a kind that most linguistics will have encountered. The argument unfolds in a way intended to make the basics available to those who do not wish to see every detail.