Kaili Vesik will give a research seminar.
Title: 74 constraints walk into a bar: Modeling acquisition with an eye to typology
Abstract: Although phonological analysis and learning algorithms may be studied independently, additional insight can be gained when their intertwining and interdependent elements are taken into account. This work investigates how assumptions made about each of these topics – analysis and learning – can have implications for understanding of the other. I begin by summarizing the main vowel patterns (including positional restrictions as well as back-front vowel harmony) attested in Balto-Finnic languages. I then propose an OT analysis that combines stringency and no-disagreement to account for the way that markedness scales are evidenced in this typology. Using this framework, I investigate how the constraint interactions therein affect the acquisition of Finnish and North Estonian vowel patterns by an error-driven algorithmic learner such as the GLA. I show how particular characteristics of the analysis (including both antagonism and concurrence amongst the constraints in the set) can be challenging for such a learner. Finally, I turn back to validate the plausibility of the proposed analysis informed by the learning results.
Kaili’s tl;dr tagline is: Come for the fun-ology; stay for the colour-coded learning results!
