A principled solution to Catalan

Abstract

Abstract Some readers of the manuscript version of this book have taken it to be an extended critique of Optimality Theory, at least in some of its manifestations. While we have presented what we feel are methodological shortcomings of certain aspects of OT, including fairly fundamental aspects, the real purpose of our work here is much broader. Our reading of the generative literature on phonology finds therein a strong tendency for a knee-jerk reaction to recalcitrant data: expansion of the computational power of the phonology, often in formally ill-defined or even incoherent ways. The best science, in our view, results when, rather than bloat theories with machinery which makes possible highly accurate data-matching, we adopt a critical attitude towards the alleged data itself. Does it truly fall within the purview of a theory of phonology as computation? Surrendering overly readily (and sometimes without explicit acknowledgement of the surrender) fundamental assumptions which underlie the pursuit of scientific phonology is a last-resort move, and we are far from having a sufficiently rich understanding of the nature of phonology for such drastic moves to be necessary. Optimality Theory has certainly expanded the explicitness with which certain fundamental aspects of building a theory of phonological computation are being treated (e.g. learning-theoretic issues, as well the nature of phonological UG). Our target is thus not a particular theory of phonology, but a particular practice.