Emergent Behavior in Phonological Pattern Change

Phonology without universal grammar

The question of identifying the properties of language that are specific human linguistic abilities, i.e., Universal Grammar, lies at the center of linguistic research. This paper argues for a largely Emergent Grammar in phonology, taking as the starting point that memory, categorization, attention to frequency, and the creation of symbolic systems are all nonlinguistic characteristics of the h...

Can phonological universals be emergent? Modeling the space of sound change, lexical distribution, and hypothesis selection: Online appendices

PatPho: a phonological pattern generator for neural networks.

Much of the power of neural network modeling for language use and acquisition derives from a reliance on statistical regularities implicit in the phonological properties of words. Researchers have devised several methods for representing the phonology of words, but these methods are often either unable to represent realistically sized lexicons or inadequate in the ways they represent individual...

Word clustering effect on vocabulary learning of EFL learners: A case of semantic versus phonological clustering

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of word clustering method on vocabulary learning of Iranian EFL learners through a case of semantic versus phonological clustering. To this effect, 80 homogeneous students from four intermediate classes at an English institute in Torbat e Heydariyeh participated in this research. They were assigned to four groups according to semantic versus phon...

Emergent feature structures: harmony systems in exemplar models of phonology

In exemplar models of phonology, phonotactic constraints are modeled as emergent from patterns of high activation between units that co-occur with statistical regularity, or as patterns of low activation or inhibition between units that cooccur less frequently or not at all. Exemplar models posit no a priori formal or representational properties to the phonological units or sound patterns that ...