call for abstracts : optimality in syntactic theory content - length : 4437 call for papers is the best good enough ? workshop on optimality in syntactic theory to be held at the massachusetts institute of technology , cambridge , ma , may 19-21 1995 . syntactic research in a variety of frameworks is assigning a growing role to the notion of comparison . this work , which is at the forefront of current research , includes theories involving principles of economy and optimality . much of this work is still unpublished or in formative stages ( legendre , raymond , and smolensky ( 1993 ) , grimshaw ( 1993 ) , pesetsky ( 1994 ) , chomsky ( 1989 , 1993 , 1994 ) ) . the relevant data vary from one account to another , but empirical comparisons of these proposals now can and should be undertaken . ) from may 19-21 , 1995 , mit will be hosting a workshop to explore and clarify particular issues of syntactic theories in which comparison plays a significant role . the workshop will consist of invited talks and talks selected from anonymously submitted abstracts . abstracts are invited to address the following questions : * what is the nature of the candidate or reference set for comparison ? which linguistic objects compete for the best choice ? * what criteria determine the optimal output from a set of candidates ? * does the grammar compare derivations ( as with the economy principles of chomsky ( 1989 , 1993 ) ) or representations ( as in the optimality theoretic analyses developed for phonology by prince and smolensky ( 1993 ) ) . * is language acquisition or variation explained by parameterization or constraint re-ranking ? * what are the computational implications and requirements of the different approaches ? invited talks will be presented by : joan bresnan , stanford noam chomsky , mit jane grimshaw , rutgers david pesetsky , mit paul smolensky and geraldine legendre , johns hopkins university edward stabler , ucla submissions for consideration must be received by march 15 , 1994 , via mail or fax transmission . authors whose abstracts are accepted will be requested to provide a more complete paper by mid - april to prepare focused discussion . we may be able to assist with travel costs for student or unemployed presenters . eight or nine 30 - minute time slots are reserved for accepted papers , each with an additional 10 minutes for questions and discussion . abstracts should be anonymous and not longer than two pages . mailing address : good enough mit 20d-219 77 massachusetts avenue , cambridge , ma , 02139 mailings should include six copies of an anonymous abstract with a cover sheet indicating the paper title , author 's name , affiliation , address , phone number , and email address . fax transmissions may be made to ( 617 ) 253-5017 , attention : david pesetsky , and should also include the cover sheet . any further questions may be addressed by email to good-enough @ mit . edu . more detailed conference information will also be made available via anonymous ftp to broca . mit . edu , in the pub / good-enough directory . references cited above : chomsky , n . ( 1989 ) , " some notes on economy of derivation and representation . " in laka , i . and a . mahajan ( ed . ) _ mit working papers in linguistics 10 , cambridge : mit working papers in linguistics . chomsky , n . ( 1993 ) , " a minimalist program for linguistic theory , " in hale , k . and j . keyser ( ed . ) _ a view from building 20 _ , cambridge : mit press . chomsky , n . ( 1994 ) , " bare phrase structure , " occasional paper # 5 , cambridge : mit working papers in linguistics . grimshaw , j . ( 1993 ) , " minimal projection , heads , and optimality , " ms . rutgers university [ available by anonymous ftp from ruccs . rutgers . edu , as pub / ot / papers / minproj . ps ] , to appear in linguistic inquiry . legendre , g . , w . raymond , and p . smolensky ( 1993 ) " an optimality - theoretic typology of case and grammatical voice systems , " _ proceedings of the nineteenth annual meeting of the berkeley linguistic society _ , berkeley , ca , 464-478 . pesetsky , d . ( in prep . ) , _ syntax at the edge : optimality effects in sentence grammar _ [ handouts only available by anonymous ftp from ruccs . rutgers . edu , as pub / ot / papers / sentpron . ps ] . prince , a . and p . smolensky ( 1993 ) , _ optimality theory : constraint interaction in generative grammar _ , ruccs technical report # 2 , rutgers university center for cognitive science , piscataway , new jersey [ to appear , mit press ] .