Where is pragmatics in optimality theory?

Abstract

This paper deals with the architectural issues of pragmatics within an overall account of natural language in optimality theory. It is argued that pragmatics can be seen as an optimisation problem described by its own constraint system which lies outside the constraint system that defines grammar (the production oriented OT models of syntax and phonology). Speaking and hearing both involve grammar and pragmatics, but in different ways. The paper argues against the popular view that grammar and interpretation should be mixed into a symmetric constraint system and connects the proposed architecture with the views that underlie the motor theory of understanding and the mirror neuron theory of understanding behaviour.