Constraint Interaction : A Lingua Franca for Stochastic Theories of Language 97 2 . A constraint - based analysis of Warker and Dell ’ s connectionist theory

Psycholinguistic and stochastic grammatical theories of sound structure are typically stated in quite different formal vocabularies (i.e., connectionist networks vs. stochastic extensions of Optimality Theory). This commentary argues that this difference obscures a common set of core principles: in each framework, the generation of behavior can be conceptualized as the consequence of the interaction of two broad types of constraints. To support this claim, Warker and Dell’s connectionist proposal is re-cast as a type of constraint-based theory. This reconceptualization not only increases our understanding of how their proposal accounts for empirical data but also allows us to better understand its relationship to stochastic grammatical theories. The connection between these cross-disciplinary perspectives suggests that the substance of theoretical disagreements reflects not principles of processing vs. grammar but rather conflicting claims regarding the precise nature of constraints and their interactions.