Analytic bias in coocurrence restrictions

The representation, content and learning of phonotactic constraints has spurred a lot of recent research phonology. This work concerns the constraints involved in the representation of place-based coocurrence restrictions. A single OCP-[PLACE] constraint is argued to compete in in constraint learning with other place-based and feature-based coocurrence constraints. The key prediction of this constraint participating in learning is generalization of a coocurrence restriction on to a novel place. This prediction, along with others, are tested in a series of artificial language learning experiments. A modification of the existing Hayes and Wilson (2008) phonotactic learner is presented (HWgain). This modified model is more robust in inducing gradient constraints, induces more general constraints and significantly improves on regression fit with English well-formedness ratings

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Brohan, Anthony

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Adam Albright.

• Linguistics and Philosophy.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93026

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/93026