Optimality Theory (OT) and Exemplar Theory (ET) are two enchanting theories to many scholars, but each still faces criticism and remaining persistent problems. Application of both theories to areas in linguistics where conflicts may arise has been attempted, but still the suitability of combining the two theories to resolve contradictions awaits further analysis and verification. This article takes Polish singular-plural pairs as the object of study and argues in favor of an OT-ET combined model of analyzing the linguistic phenomenon. First, an underlying representation is identified to be the input in an OT analysis. Then two main changes are recognized between the input and output, and are regarded as instances of positional neutralization, and their relevant constraints and constraint hierarchies are presented. Following this, challenges are posed to OT despite its merits. It turns out that the combined OT-ET model works well, with historical development, underspecification, constraint hierarchy, and resemblance to existing word clouds, among others, all playing relevant parts. The current study adds to the extensiveness of language data analyzed for or against combining OT and ET, and sketches the analysis pattern of thus doing, with a view to offering more real-life language materials for an OT-ET combined model.

中文翻译：

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波兰单复数对的 OT-ET 分析

最优性理论 (OT) 和范例理论 (ET) 对许多学者来说是两个令人着迷的理论，但它们都面临着批评和长期存在的问题。已经尝试将这两种理论应用于语言学中可能出现冲突的领域，但将两种理论结合起来解决矛盾的适用性仍有待进一步分析和验证。本文以波兰语单复数对为研究对象，主张采用OT-ET组合模型分析语言现象。首先，基础表示被识别为 OT 分析中的输入。然后识别输入和输出之间的两个主要变化，并将其视为位置中和的实例，并提出它们的相关约束和约束层次。按照此，OT 尽管有其优点，但仍面临挑战。事实证明，组合的 OT-ET 模型运行良好，历史发展、规范不足、约束层次以及与现有词云的相似性等都发挥了相关作用。目前的研究增加了分析支持或反对结合 OT 和 ET 的语言数据的广泛性，并勾勒出这样做的分析模式，以期为 OT-ET 结合模型提供更多真实的语言材料。