This dissertation outlines a program for the theory of phonotactics--the theory of speakers' knowledge of possible and impossible (or likely and unlikely) words--and argues that the alternative view of phonotactics as stochastic, and of phonotactic learning as probabilistic inference, is not capable of accounting for the facts of this domain.…

This dissertation is focused on analyzing phonological contact between Slavic and non-Slavic languages in southeastern and northeastern Europe, with the particular goal of describing how the social context of language contact interacts with linguistic factors to shape the outcome of contact-induced change. On the basis of case studies drawn from…