From Joe Pater (pater@linguist.umass.edu)

Paul Smolensky explains the roots of the term “Harmony” in Harmony Theory (and Harmonic Grammar and Optimality Theory) in statistical physics (and vowel harmony):

http://websites.umass.edu/comphon/2016/01/14/whats-harmony/

Smolensky mentions a sign change from the statistical physics formulation, which leads to a discussion of the reason for the original polarity with Mark Johnson, culminating in some speculation about potential cognitive interpretations of T.

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