<OT> New Posting: ROA-1003

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 1003-1108

Linking speech errors and phonological grammars: Insights from Harmonic Grammar networks

Matthew Goldrick <goldrick at ling.northwestern.edu>
Robert Daland <r-daland at northwestern.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1003


Abstract:
Phonological grammars characterize distinctions between
relatively well-formed (unmarked) and relatively ill-formed
(marked) phonological structures.  We review evidence that
markedness influences speech error probabilities.  Specifically,
although errors result in both unmarked as well as marked
structures, there is a markedness asymmetry: errors are
more likely to produce unmarked outcomes. We show that stochastic
disruption to the computational mechanisms realizing a Harmonic
Grammar (HG) can account for the broad empirical patterns
of speech errors.  We demonstrate that our proposal can
account for the general markedness asymmetry.  We also develop
methods for linking particular HG proposals to speech error
distributions, and illustrate these methods using a simple
HG and a set of initial consonant errors in English.

Online supplemental materials (include functions for computing
predicted speech error distributions) can be found at:
http://ling.northwestern.edu/~goldrick/harmonyDisruption/

Comments: Slightly revised version to appear in Phonology
Keywords: Markedness, speech errors, Harmonic Grammar
Areas: Phonology,Psycholinguistics,Formal Analysis
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1003