<OT> New Posting: ROA-751

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 751-0605

Lexically Specific Constraints: Gradience, Learnability, and Perception

Joe Pater <pater at linguist.umass.edu>
Andries W Coetzee <coetzee at umich.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=751


Abstract:
Lexically specific constraints are indexed versions of constraint
s that apply only when a morpheme that bears that index
is evaluated by the grammar. They have been used in Optimality
Theory to deal with exceptions (e.g. Pater 2000), and have
also been applied to the lexical strata of Japanese and
other languages (e.g. Fukuzawa 1999, Ito and Mester 2000).
In this paper, we propose a further application of lexically
specific constraints: to the analysis of gradient phonotactics
(cf. Frisch et al. 2004). Markedness constraints are ranked
according to the degree to which they are obeyed across
the words of the language, with lexically specific constraints
interspersed between them. We then show that rankings of
this type can be learned with a relatively minor elaboration
of the Biased Constraint Demotion Algorithm (Prince and
Tesar 2004). Finally, we provide experimental evidence from
lexical decision tasks and acceptability judgments that
language users are aware of such lexical patterns.

Comments: To appear in the Proceedings of the Third Korean International Conference on Phonology
Keywords: gradience, learnability, phonotactics, exceptions, lexically specific constraints
Areas: Phonology,Learnability,Psycholinguistics
Type: Conference Proceedings Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=751