Optimality Account of Stress in Standard British and Nigerian English

The book holds that OT satisfies the requirement that any serious theory of phonology must rely on well-formedness constraints, which means it must be committed to universal grammar. This way, what marks individual or core grammar from the universal is the order in which these constraints apply. By implication,a language specific grammar therefore is but a means of resolving conflicting universal constraints. The book has also shown how the constraint ordering in SBE is re-ordered in NE, arguing that the different constraint ordering notwithstanding, these constraints are the same, and are present in each of these varieties of English. As it were, resolving these often conflicting universal constraints through ranking to scan violablility and preferences distinguishes one variety or dialect from another. This knowledge, especially the markedness between stress assignment in SBE and NE using this comparative constraint ordering approach could lead to improved teaching, learning and overall better usage of English in Nigeria if the pedagogical training is made to concentrate on the markedness instead.