Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T13:54:52.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Will Optimality Theory colonize all of higher cognition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Tamás Biró
Affiliation:
Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC), University of Amsterdam (UvA), NL-1012 VT Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [email protected]/

Abstract

To establish Optimality Theory as a framework in anthropology, or as a general model of higher human cognition, researchers have to demonstrate OT is convincing in a number of ways. This commentary summarizes some of them – based on experience obtained in contemporary linguistic OT – including factorial typologies, exact formulation of candidate sets and constraints, and computational plausibility.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Biró, T. (2006) Finding the right words: Implementing optimality theory with simulated annealing. PhD thesis. GroDiL 62. Groningen. Available online at: http://www.birot.hu/publications/dissertation/dissertation.pdf and http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/arts/2006/t.s.biro/.Google Scholar
Biró, T. (2009) Elephants and optimality again: SA-OT accounts for pronoun resolution in child language. In: Computational linguistics in the Netherlands 2009. LOT Occasional Series 14, ed. Plank, B., Tjong Kim Sang, E. & Van de Cruys, T., pp. 924. Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap.Google Scholar
Biró, T. (in press) Optimal religion. Optimality theory accounts for ritual dynamics. In: Changing minds. Religion and cognition through the ages, ed. Czachesz, I. & Biró, T.. Peeters Publishers.Google Scholar
Jones, D. (2004) The universal psychology of kinship: Evidence from language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(5):211–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smolensky, P. & Legendre, G. (ed.) (2006) The harmonic mind: From neural computation to optimality-theoretic grammar. MIT Press.Google Scholar