Change, Chance, and Optimality

This book is about how languages change. It is also a devastating critique of Optimality Theory-the dominant theory in contemporary phonology and increasingly influential throughout linguistics.The author sets out its basis principles and shows it to be incapable of explaining either language change or variation. OT relies on the innateness of certain human language faculties and therefore needs to explain the origins of allegedly genetically-specified features. Professor McMahon considers the nature and evolution of the human language capacity, and reveals a profound mismatch between the predictions of evolutionary biology and the claims for innateness made in OT. She argues further that any convincing theory of linguistic change must take account of the roles of history and chance.