<OT> New Posting: ROA-585

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

ROA 585-0303

Learning abstract phonological from auditory phonetic categories: An
integrated model for the acquisition of language-specific sound categories

Paul Boersma <paul.boersma@hum.uva.nl>
Paola Escudero <paola.escudero@let.uu.nl>
Rachel Hayes <rhayes@u.arizona.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=585


Abstract:
We introduce a two-stage model for the perceptual acquisition of speech
sound categories within the framework of Stochastic Optimality Theory and
the Gradual Learning Algorithm. During the first stage, learning of
language-specific sound categories by infants is driven by distributional
evidence in the linguistic input. This auditory-driven learning leads to a
warping of the baby's perceptual space, to discrimination curves, to the
perceptual magnet effect, and ultimately to the creation of phonetic
categories. In the transition to the second stage, these phonetic
categories turn into simple abstract phonological categories. During the
second stage, when the lexicon is in place, lexically-driven learning will
develop more abstract representations and optimize multi-dimensional
perception. The results of our simulations compare well with findings from
the infant literature and from cross-language studies.

Keywords: acquisition, categorization, learning

Areas: Phonology,Language Acquisition,Learnability,Phonetics

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=585