Cumulativity by default in phonotactic learning

An ongoing debate in phonology concerns whether the grammar is better characterized by frameworks which use strictly-ranked constraints (such as Optimality Theory, "OT") or weighted constraints (Harmonic Grammar, "HG"). This paper uses a series of Artificial Grammar Learning expe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLingBuzz
Main Author Canaan Breiss
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Tromso Universitetet i Tromsoe 01.08.2019
Subjects
Artificial languages
Constraints
Optimality theory
Phonological rules
Phonotactics
Poverty of stimulus
Rule ordering
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Summary:An ongoing debate in phonology concerns whether the grammar is better characterized by frameworks which use strictly-ranked constraints (such as Optimality Theory, "OT") or weighted constraints (Harmonic Grammar, "HG"). This paper uses a series of Artificial Grammar Learning experiments focused on static phonotactics to probe an empirical domain where OT and HG make different empirical predictions: cumulative constraint interactions, also known as "gang effects". OT does not allow gang effects by default, while HG permits ganging automatically. I show that learners exhibit spontaneously emerging ganging behavior in a poverty-of-the-stimulus environment, providing experimental data supporting weighted-constraint theories of phonological grammar.