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Optimality theory maintains that universal constraints of grammar may conflict with each other. Building on this premise it develops a theory of human language where cross-linguistic variation emerges from the possible resolutions of constraint conflicts. Its creators, Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky, first publicly examined the consequences of this hypothesis in a course at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1991. A comprehensive written presentation that explained the formal properties of optimality theory and its application to phonology followed in 1993 and was eventually published in 2004. Since then optimality theory has become the main analytical framework in generative phonology while at the same time making its influence felt across a wide range of disciplines, including syntax, semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, language learning, computational linguistics and cognitive science.