Abstract
In this paper I argue on the basis of data from Chichewa that even if both linear and non-linear analyses to vowel harmony were to be available to linguistic theory, both of which probably describe the linguistic data adequately, theory evaluation criteria like economy, generality and learnability support the selection of the non-linear alternative. I demonstrate that by allowing a rich system of principles, conditions and conventions most of which are attributed to universal grammar, the theory of non-linear phonology makes it possible for individual grammars like that of Chichewa to be simpler. Consequently, most of the facts of Chichewa vowel harmony need not be stipulated in a language-specific manner, as the linear approach does, since they are predicted to follow automatically as consequences of the nature of the theory itself.
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