Approximation and Exactness in Finite State Optimality Theory

Previous work (Frank and Satta 1998; Karttunen, 1998) has shown that Optimality Theory with gradient constraints generally is not finite state. A new finite-state treatment of gradient constraints is presented which improves upon the approximation of Karttunen (1998). The method turns out to be exact, and very compact, for the syllabification analysis of Prince and Smolensky (1993).