Optimality-Theoretic Lexical-Functional Grammar

Optimality-Theoretic Lexical-Functional Grammar (OT-LFG) is a grammatical framework that uses Optimality Theory to make typological and implicational predictions in the domain of morpho-syntax. This article surveys the main features and predictions of the framework, focussing on the Optimality Theory (OT) characterization of markedness to illustrate implicational predictions in morphosyntax in the expression of voice and of split ergativity, and in syntax in the hierchical structure of the clause and of linear order of the major clausal constituents. Brief accounts of extensions to bidirectional OT (production and comprehension) and stochastic OT (allowing an account of synchronic variation and gradual diachronic change) are given.