ROA: | 369 |
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Title: | Phonology-semantics interaction in OT, and its acquisition |
Authors: | Paul Boersma |
Comment: | In R. Kirchner, W. Wikeley & J. Pater (eds., 2001), Papers in Experimental and Theoretical Linguistics, Vol. 6. |
Length: | 12 |
Abstract: | Smolensky's (1996) original proposal of a single grammar for production and comprehension does not seem to hold in the face of phonological alternations. If comprehension is to be modelled as an Optimality-Theoretic grammar, this recognition grammar must contain lexical-access constraints whose rankings depend on the semantic context and on frequency of occurrence. These lexical constraints interact with faithfulness constraints in much the same way as the structural constraints do in the production grammar. The lexical constraints come into existence by the violation of an anti-lexicalization constraint in the recognition grammar, and are subsequently automatically ranked in the appropriate confusion-minimizing order by a gradual learning algorithm. It is perfectly possible that the production and recognition grammars contain the same faithfulness constraints ranked in the same order. If this is correct, the two grammars can be merged, because structural constraints apply vacuously in the recognition grammar, and lexical-access constraints apply equally vacuously in the production grammar. |
Type: | Paper/tech report |
Area/Keywords: | Learnability,Phonology |
Article: | Version 1 |