This volume provides the first general introduction to optimality theory -- arguably the linguistic theory of the 1990s. The book leads the reader to an understanding of optimality theory via the exploration and resolution of specific problems in phonology, morphology, and syntax, but presumes virtually no background knowledge in linguistics.

Diana B. Archangeli is Professor of Linguistics at The University of Arizona. She received her PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1984, taught previously at the University of Illinois. She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Faculty Award for Women. In addition to several articles on phonology, she is the co-author with Douglas Pulleybank of Grounded Morphology.

D. Terence Langendoen is Professor and Head of Linguistics at The University of Arizona. He received his PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1964, and has taught at Ohio State University and City University of New York, He is the author of The London School of Linguistics, The Study of Syntax, and Essentials of English Grammar, and co-author with Paul Postal of The Vastness of Natural Language. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the Linguistics Society of America from 1984 to 1988, and will become editor of Linguistics Abstracts in 1997.