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Abstract Default nominal inflection in Hebrew: evidence for mental variables (1999)
BibTeX
@MISC{A99abstractdefault,
author = {Iris Berent A and Steven Pinker B and Joseph Shimron C},
title = {Abstract Default nominal inflection in Hebrew: evidence for mental variables},
year = {1999}
}
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Abstract
According to the ‘word/rule ’ account, regular inflection is computed by a default, symbolic process, whereas irregular inflection is achieved by associative memory. Conversely, patternassociator accounts attribute both regular and irregular inflection to an associative process. The acquisition of the default is ascribed to the asymmetry in the distribution of regular and irregular tokens. Irregular tokens tend to form tight, well-defined phonological clusters (e.g. sing-sang, ring-rang), whereas regular forms are diffusely distributed throughout the phonological space. This distributional asymmetry is necessary and sufficient for the acquisition of a regular default. Hebrew nominal inflection challenges this account. We demonstrate that Hebrew speakers use the regular masculine inflection as a default despite the overlap in the distribution of regular and irregular Hebrew masculine nouns. Specifically, Experiment 1 demonstrates that regular inflection is productively applied to novel nouns regardless of their similarity to existing regular nouns. In contrast, the inflection of irregular sounding nouns is strongly sensitive to their similarity to stored irregular tokens. Experiment 2 establishes the generality of the regular default for novel words that are phonologically idiosyncratic. Experiment 3 demonstrates that Hebrew speakers assign the default regular inflection
Keyphrases
irregular token mental variable abstract default nominal inflection hebrew speaker regular inflection irregular inflection regular default noun regardless distributional asymmetry patternassociator account associative process well-defined phonological cluster irregular hebrew masculine noun regular masculine inflection symbolic process associative memory regular noun word rule account novel word hebrew nominal inflection whereas regular form default regular inflection irregular sounding noun phonological space
