This book is very similar to the manuscript (written by the same authors and bearing the same title) that has been circulating among phonologists since 1993. As mentioned by the authors in the preface, “those familiar with an earlier version of the text will not find new notions and notations here” (p. ix). For this reason, the 2004 publication date may seem anachronistic, as it does not reflect the state of Optimality Theory (OT) in 2004, but rather in 1993. The most notable difference between the two versions of this text is the disappearance of two sections (on variable rules and stochastic grammars and on declarative phonology) that were to be added in the manuscript form.

The unquestionable value of this text lies in the fact that it is the founding stone of OT. As such, it introduces all the core principles clearly and succinctly. At the same time, these principles are presented through the analysis of examples taken from a variety of languages. This format allows the readers to follow the step-by-step analysis and understand the workings of OT.

The book opens with a preliminary chapter that presents background and basic concepts. The first part focuses on constraint interaction through the analysis of examples central to prosodic theory related to syllable structure, triggering, and blocking. This analysis of syllable structure is continued in the second part, which explores typology and the asymmetry between onsets and codas. It concludes that the typology of possible language is given by rankings of constraints. Finally, in the third part, the relation between OT and other grammars is presented through the analysis of language-specific inventories and the lexicon (in chapter 9) and through comparisons with other theories, especially connectionism and the theory of constraints and repair strategies (in chapter 10).

All in all, this book is a must-have for anyone working with OT, both for its symbolic value and for the clarity of its explanations.