<OT> New Posting: ROA-920

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 920-0707

Inducing functionally grounded constraints

Kathryn Flack <flack at linguist.umass.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=920


Abstract:
Phonological grammars are clearly grounded in phonetics.
Within OT, many individual constraints appear to be motivated
by particular phonetic facts. The precise connection between
such a constraint and its phonetic motivation, however,
is not well understood. This paper offers a proposal for
how learners might consistently induce perceptually grounded
constraints from their acoustic and perceptual experience.
The empirical focus of the paper is the constraint *#P 'No
word-initial unaspirated p', which is shown to be active
in languages including Cajonos Zapotec and Ibibio. Experimental
data shows that initial P is uniquely difficult to perceive
as a result of its acoustic similarity to initial B. The
paper describes a computational model in which virtual learners
induce *#P from precisely these phonetic facts. This model
achieves realistic perception of acoustically realistic
segments; the learner's knowledge of these segments' relative
perceptibility then forms the basis for constraint induction.

Comments: 
Keywords: constraint induction, functional grounding
Areas: Phonology,Phonetics,Computation
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=920