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131
A maximum entropy model of phonotactics and phonotactic learning
, 2006
"... The study of phonotactics (e.g., the ability of English speakers to distinguish possible words like blick from impossible words like *bnick) is a central topic in phonology. We propose a theory of phonotactic grammars and a learning algorithm that constructs such grammars from positive evidence. Our ..."
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Cited by 136 (15 self)
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The study of phonotactics (e.g., the ability of English speakers to distinguish possible words like blick from impossible words like *bnick) is a central topic in phonology. We propose a theory of phonotactic grammars and a learning algorithm that constructs such grammars from positive evidence. Our grammars consist of constraints that are assigned numerical weights according to the principle of maximum entropy. Possible words are assessed by these grammars based on the weighted sum of their constraint violations. The learning algorithm yields grammars that can capture both categorical and gradient phonotactic patterns. The algorithm is not provided with any constraints in advance, but uses its own resources to form constraints and weight them. A baseline model, in which Universal Grammar is reduced to a feature set and an SPE-style constraint format, suffices to learn many phonotactic phenomena. In order to learn nonlocal phenomena such as stress and vowel harmony, it is necessary to augment the model with autosegmental tiers and metrical grids. Our results thus offer novel, learning-theoretic support for such representations. We apply the model to English syllable onsets, Shona vowel harmony, quantity-insensitive stress typology, and the full phonotactics of Wargamay, showing that the learned grammars capture the distributional generalizations of these languages and accurately predict the findings of a phonotactic experiment.
Analytic bias and phonological typology
, 2008
"... Two factors have been proposed as the main determinants of phonological typology: channel bias, phonetically systematic errors in transmission, and analytic bias, cognitive predispositions making learners more receptive to some patterns than others. Much of typology can be explained equally well by ..."
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Cited by 33 (4 self)
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Two factors have been proposed as the main determinants of phonological typology: channel bias, phonetically systematic errors in transmission, and analytic bias, cognitive predispositions making learners more receptive to some patterns than others. Much of typology can be explained equally well by either factor, making them hard to distinguish empirically. This study presents evidence that analytic bias is strong enough to create typological asymmetries in a case where channel bias is controlled. I show that (i) phonological dependencies between the height of two vowels are typologically more common than dependencies between vowel height and consonant voicing, (ii) the phonetic precursors of the heightheight and height-voice patterns are equally robust and (iii) in two experiments, English speakers learned a height-height pattern and a voice-voice pattern better than a height-voice pattern. I conclude that both factors contribute to typology, and discuss hypotheses about their interaction.
Stochastic phonological knowledge: The case of Hungarian vowel harmony
- PHONOLOGY
, 2006
"... In Hungarian, stems ending in a back vowel plus one or more neutral vowels show unusual behavior: for such stems, the otherwise-general process of vowel harmony is lexically idiosyncratic. Particular stems can take front suffixes, take back suffixes, or vacillate. Yet at a statistical level, the p ..."
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Cited by 22 (0 self)
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In Hungarian, stems ending in a back vowel plus one or more neutral vowels show unusual behavior: for such stems, the otherwise-general process of vowel harmony is lexically idiosyncratic. Particular stems can take front suffixes, take back suffixes, or vacillate. Yet at a statistical level, the patterning among these stems is lawful: in the aggregate, they obey principles that relate the propensity to take back or front harmony to the height of the rightmost vowel and to the number of neutral vowels. We argue that this patterned statistical variation in the Hungarian lexicon is internalized by native speakers. Our evidence is that they replicate the pattern when they are asked to apply harmony to novel stems in a “wug ” test (Berko 1958). Our test results match quantitative data about the Hungarian lexicon, gathered with an automated Web search. We model the speakers’ knowledge and intuitions with a grammar based on the dual listing/generation model of Zuraw (2000), then show how the constraint rankings of this grammar can be learned by algorithm.
On languages piecewise testable in the strict sense
- In Proceedings of the 11th Meeting of the Assocation for Mathematics of Language
, 2009
"... Abstract. In this paper we explore the class of Strictly Piecewise languages, originally introduced to characterize long-distance phonotactic patterns by Heinz [1] as the Precedence Languages. We provide a series of equivalent abstract characterizations, discuss their basic properties, locate them r ..."
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Cited by 18 (12 self)
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Abstract. In this paper we explore the class of Strictly Piecewise languages, originally introduced to characterize long-distance phonotactic patterns by Heinz [1] as the Precedence Languages. We provide a series of equivalent abstract characterizations, discuss their basic properties, locate them relative to other well-known subregular classes and provide algorithms for translating between the grammars defined here and finite state automata as well as an algorithm for deciding whether a regular language is Strictly Piecewise. 1
Explaining final obstruent voicing in Lezgian: phonetics and history
- Language
, 2004
"... In Lezgian, a Nakh-Daghestanian language, final and preconsonantal ejectives and voiceless unaspirated obstruents are voiced in certain monosyllabic nouns. This article offers acoustic evi-dence confirming that the two coda-voicing series are indeed voiced in final position. Based on comparative evi ..."
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Cited by 17 (2 self)
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In Lezgian, a Nakh-Daghestanian language, final and preconsonantal ejectives and voiceless unaspirated obstruents are voiced in certain monosyllabic nouns. This article offers acoustic evi-dence confirming that the two coda-voicing series are indeed voiced in final position. Based on comparative evidence, it is demonstrated that this phonetically aberrant neutralization pattern is the result of a series of phonetically natural sound changes. Such ‘crazy rules ’ (Bach & Harms 1972) undermine any direct phonetic licensing approach to phonology, such as LICENSING BY CUE (Steriade 1997).*
Linguistic optimization
"... Optimality Theory (OT) is a model of language that combines aspects of generative and connectionist linguistics. It is unique in the field in its use of a rank ordering on constraints, which is used to formalize optimization, the choice of the best of a set of potential linguistic forms. We show tha ..."
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Cited by 16 (2 self)
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Optimality Theory (OT) is a model of language that combines aspects of generative and connectionist linguistics. It is unique in the field in its use of a rank ordering on constraints, which is used to formalize optimization, the choice of the best of a set of potential linguistic forms. We show that phenomena argued to require ranking fall out equally from the form of optimization in OT’s predecessor Harmonic Grammar (HG), which uses numerical weights to encode the relative strength of constraints. We further argue that the known problems for HG can be resolved by adopting assumptions about the nature of constraints that have precedents both in OT and elsewhere in computational and generative linguistics. This leads to a formal proof that if the range of each constraint is a bounded number of violations, HG generates a finite number of languages. This is nontrivial, since the set of possible weights for each constraint is nondenumerably infinite. We also briefly review some advantages of HG. 1
Structure and substance in artificial-phonology learning, Part II: Substance
, 2012
"... Artificial analogues of natural-language phonological patterns can often be learned in the lab from small amounts of training or exposure. The difficulty of a featurallydefined pattern has been hypothesized to be affected by two main factors, its formal structure (the abstract logical relationships ..."
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Cited by 13 (3 self)
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Artificial analogues of natural-language phonological patterns can often be learned in the lab from small amounts of training or exposure. The difficulty of a featurallydefined pattern has been hypothesized to be affected by two main factors, its formal structure (the abstract logical relationships between the defining features) and its phonetic substance (the concrete phonetic interpretation of the pattern). This paper, the second of a two-part series, reviews the experimental literature on phonetic substance, which is hypothesized to facilitate the acquisition of phonological patterns that resemble naturally-occurring phonetic patterns. The effects of phonetic substance on pattern learning turn out to be elusive and unreliable in comparison with the robust effects of formal complexity (reviewed in Part I). If natural-language acquisition is guided by the same inductive biases as are found in the lab, these results support a theory in which inductive bias shapes only the form, and channel bias shapes the content, of the sound patterns of the worlds languages.
