Blurb:

Optimality Theory requires the analyst to formally define the space of possible candidates, and to consider all the candidates in that space. However, it is impossible to do this by hand in the context of research in the syntax-prosody interface, due to the complexity of the inputs and outputs, which both take the form of trees. The SPOT application automates this process, making it feasible to conduct rigorous OT analyses of issues on the syntax-prosody interface. This chapter introduces the representational assumptions of Prosodic Hierarchy Theory, as well as the key concepts of modern OT: systems consisting of fully explicit candidate sets and constraint sets, which yield factorial typologies amenable to analysis in terms of Property Theory. An overview of the book shows how this conceptual toolkit is brought to bear on major questions of syntax-prosody mapping, such as matching versus alignment, strict versus weak layering, and the nature of markedness constraints.