Customer Reviews

Optimality Theory (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was good overall, with plenty of tableaux covering issues in phonology as well as syntax, and taking a look at problems with OT. However, there were LOTS of mistakes, in the tableaux (which made them very confusing for a beginner) as well as in the body text. The only other issue I have is that the constraint index in the back doesn't list all the constraints mentioned in the book. Maybe the next edition will be better. But overall, still a pretty well-written text.

Great educational value; the first book in the marketplace with high value exercices on resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. I have only a basic knowledge of derivational Generative Phonology, but encountered no barriers to enter the world of Optimality Theory.

The author helps to make Optimality Theory accessible to the reader without much background knowledge. It is much better in this regard than the Prince and Smolensky version. It also has useful excercises at the end of each chapter. However, the author does not provide answers, which I think would have been particularly helpful.

If you have read Prince and Smolensky's (2004) basic framework of Optimality Theory, you probably will be disappointed because there are full of logics or the deep structure of the theory. If you just want to look at the application of OT in different subfields in phonology, then you should read this one. Kager's book introduce the basic structure and principles of OT. In this book, many languages are introduced and the application of OT to these languages is illustrated by the author in a simplest way. The author also compares the application of rule-based theory to that of OT and explain why OT is better. This book includes subfields such as segments, prosody, acquisition and even OT-syntax. In the end of this book, the author also introduce few issues which are remained to be further discussed. The publication year of this book is 1999 and the theory is still going through the evolutional process. Despite the evolution, this book still serves any newcomer of phonology. For a more easier introduction, I recommend Optimality Theory: An Overview (Explaining Linguistics, 1).

The best price I could fine online. Shipped instantly and arrived in the promised condition. Thank you!

I'm Korean. So my English is not so fluent.
But this book was very easy to understand and very kind.