cost (n.)

A term used metaphorically in GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY in discussing the relative SIMPLICITY or NATURALNESS of phonological analyses. Increasing the complexity of an analysis (e.g. by adding FEATURES or RULES) is said to add to its cost, and vice versa. The principle involved here is a general one, sometimes discussed with reference to the notion of ‘diminishing returns’: as more CLASSES of LINGUISTIC UNIT are set up, each class comes to subsume fewer DATA, and, while this permits an increase in the ability of the GRAMMAR to handle exceptions, there is a consequential drop in generality. There is thus plenty of room for controversy over where the least costly cut-off point in an analysis would be, in trying to reconcile generality with depth of descriptive detail. In the MINIMALIST PROGRAMME, cost relates to the complexity in the DERIVATION.