Selective lexicon optimization

•Presents a formal model for the development of statistical patterns under classic fixed constraint ranking.•Develops a refinement of lexicon optimization for use under noisy conditions.•Demonstrates an analysis of the distribution of vowel types surrounding single intervocalic consonants.

Phonological generalizations that are not absolute, but rather statistic, are a traditional problem for formal phonological theory. This paper gives an example of such a phenomenon and then proposes how such a skewed lexical distribution can be understood in terms of language learning in optimality theory. If lexicon optimization is extended minimally so as to incorporate the fact that the learner is confronted with (random, phonetic) variation, individual words may change, in order to start satisfying lower ranked markedness constraints. If sufficient words have undergone such a change, this may eventually lead to constraint reranking and therefore grammatical change.