Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction: Preferences -- Part I: Gradience and preference ranking -- Prosodic templates in Algonquian reduplication and initial change -- Amurdak intersyllabic phonotactics and morphophonemic alternations as motivated by the Contact Law -- Shortening as a window on phonological grammar -- Moving from syllables to feet in the prosodic hierarchy: How foot-based templates reflect prosodic preferences -- Part II: Prioritisation and the inferring of preferences from observed choices -- Danish Stød in the light of morae, the Weight Law and sonority (strength): A personal view -- Towards phonetic explanations for preferred sound patterns -- The first person singular subject negative portmanteau in Luganda and Lusoga -- The laryngeal preference, Saussure, and his politics -- Part III: Comparative evaluation and the inherent "predictive" purpose of preferences -- Preference laws and a new interpretation of Modern Bulgarian "liquid metathesis" -- Syllable structure and sonority in Modern Irish -- Preference theory and the uneven progress of degemination in Middle English -- The principle of scopal serialisation: Wackernagel position and mirrored Wackernagel position -- Tabula Gratulatoria -- Index