The programm of deriving the descriptive effects of templates from independently required constraints on phonology, morphology, and their interface is called Generalized Template Theory (GTT [...]). The main thesis is that templates are obtained by entirely general constraints "via" the emergence-of-the-unmarked ranking pattern [...]. A structural constraint rendered inactive in the language as a whole because of domination by I-O Faithfulness may nonetheless emerge as visibly active in situations where I-O Faithfulness is not relevant. In particular, it may determine the form of the reduplicant, which is subject to constraints on B-R Identity rather than I-O Faithfulness. The ranking schema that leads to this situation is the following. (40) Skeletal ranking for emergence of the unmarked I-O Faithfulness >> Phono-Constraint >> B-R Identity.
- McCarthy & Prince (2004), a pag.406

The successor to the Prosodic Mophology Hypothesis is Generalized Template Theory [McCarthy, John J. and Prince, Alan. S., 1994a, “The emergence of the unmarked: Optimality in Prosodic Morphology, in Gonzales, M., ed., “Proceeding of the North East Linguistic Society” 24, Amherst, MA, pp. 333-379; 1994b, Prosodic Morphology: an overview, papers presented at the Workshop on Prosodic Morphology, University of Utrecht, June 1994], which carroes the explanatory goals of PM up to the next level: the elimination of templates "per se" in favor of widely applicable constraints on prosody, morphology, and their interface. In this view, typical templatic categories like the "Minimal Word" are given no independent status, but rather emerge in reduplicative contexts through appropriate ranking of constraints on foot parsing and grammar → prosody mapping.
- McCarthy & Prince (2004), a pag.369