Phonological constraint induction in a connectionist network: learning OCP-Place constraints from data

Abstract: A significant problem in computational language learning is that of inferring the content of well-formedness constraints from input data. In this article, we approach the constraint induction problem as the gradual adjustment of subsymbolic constraints in a connectionist network. In partic...

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Publicado en:Language Sciences Vol. 37; pp. 52 - 70
Autores principales: Alderete, John, Tupper, Paul, Frisch, Stefan A.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Elsevier B.V. May2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: May2013
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      pub: Elsevier B.V.
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        10.1016/j.langsci.2012.10.002
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        atl: Phonological constraint induction in a connectionist network: learning OCP-Place constraints from data
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        au:
          Alderete, John
          Tupper, Paul
          Frisch, Stefan A.
        affil:
          Simon Fraser University, Department of Linguistics, 8888 University Ave., Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6
          Simon Fraser University, Department of Mathematics, 8888 University Ave., Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6
          University of South Florida, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., PCD1017, Tampa, FL 33620-8100, USA
      su:
        Phonology
        Learning
        Constraints (Linguistics)
        Foreign language education
        Psycholinguistics
        Qualitative research
      sug:
        subj:
          Phonology
          Learning
          Constraints (Linguistics)
          Foreign language education
          Psycholinguistics
          Qualitative research
      keyword:
        Arabic
        Connectionism
        Constraint induction
        Dissimilation
        Optimality Theory
        Parallel distributed processing
      ab: Abstract: A significant problem in computational language learning is that of inferring the content of well-formedness constraints from input data. In this article, we approach the constraint induction problem as the gradual adjustment of subsymbolic constraints in a connectionist network. In particular, we develop a multi-layer feed-forward network that learns the constraints that underlie restrictions against homorganic consonants, or ‘OCP-Place constraints’, in Arabic roots. The network is trained using standard learning procedures in connection science with a representative sample of Arabic roots. The trained network is shown to classify actual and novel Arabic roots in ways that are qualitatively parallel to a psycholinguistic study of Arabic. Statistical analysis of network behavior also shows that activations of nodes in the hidden layer correspond well with violations of symbolic well-formedness constraints familiar from generative phonology. In sum, it is shown that at least some constraints operative in phonotactic grammar can be learned from data and do not have to be stipulated in advance of learning.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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