Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness, optimal output,
Thy violations aren’t really too bad.
Thou changest not what the ranking prohibits;
For thy great faithfulness list’ners are glad!
Typology, Typology
Typology, typology, we love your universals!
Typology, typology, we need your universals!
They tell us what will come to pass,
When objects lead and verbs come last;
Typology, typology, alas they’re only tendencies.
The Linguist’s One Foundation
The linguist’s one foundation is sound change regular:
Exceptionless it marches to split or merger.
From borrowing preserve us, and from analogy,
That every reconstruction may true and faithful be.
Joy to the Word
Joy to the word, though linguists can not tell you what one is.
It’s somehow phonological, syntactic and morphological,
But one thing is for sure,
Yes one thing is for sure:
We’re pretty sure it’s listed in the lexicon.
D.S. al Coda