<OT> New Posting: ROA-684

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

ROA 684-0904

Learning to perceive a smaller L2 vowel inventory: an Optimality Theory 
account

Paul Boersma <paul.boersma at uva.nl>
Paola Escudero <paola.escudero at let.uu.nl>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=684


Abstract:
This paper gives computer simulations of the perceptual acquisition of 
the Spanish vowel system by Dutch learners of Spanish, thereby 
faithfully modelling the results of a listening experiment with real 
learners. Negatively formulated constraints in the perception grammar 
help to map auditory continua (first and second formant) to the 8 short 
Dutch vowels and the 5 Spanish vowels (we also show that positively 
formulated constraints do not work). These OT simulations have the same 
categorization power as simple connectionist models (Rosenblatt's 
perceptron) and the fuzzy logical model of perception (Massaro). Unlike 
these other models, however, OT perception models have the capacity to 
make a connection to structural phenomena that phonologists are 
traditionally interested in.


Comments:
Keywords: acquisition, categorization, learning, perception, Spanish, 
Dutch, second language
Areas: Phonology, Phonetics, Learnability, Language Acquisition, 
Psycholinguistics
Type: Book Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=684