|
Grammaticality can be measured as output frequencies in Stochastic Optimality Theory, conditional on given information. The Gradual Learning Algorithm is used either to simulate acquisition or as a frequency matching device.
The following paper discusses grammaticality judgments on dark and light /l/ in American English.
| 2001 | Paul Boersma & Bruce Hayes: Empirical tests of the Gradual Learning Algorithm. Linguistic Inquiry 32: 45–86. [copyright] Earlier version: Rutgers Optimality Archive 348, 1999/09/29. Additional material: the GLA web page. |
The first part of the following paper extends the model to more than two candidates:
| 2004/03/18 | A Stochastic OT account of paralinguistic tasks such as grammaticality and prototypicality judgments. Rutgers Optimality Archive 648. 18 pages. |
The /i/ prototype effect is the fact when asked to select the best token of /i/, listeners tend to judge a peripheral token, e.g. one with an F1 of 250 Hz, as being better than the average token of /i/, which has an F1 of 300 Hz. The second part of the following paper explains this within a listener-oriented view of production, i.e. with probabilistic faithfulness constraints.
| 2004/03/18 | A Stochastic OT account of paralinguistic tasks such as grammaticality and prototypicality judgments. Rutgers Optimality Archive 648. 18 pages. |
A more parsimonious explanation is given within the framework of Parallel Bidirectional Phonology and Phonetics (BiPhon), where cue constraints interact directly with articulatory constraints:
| 2006 | Prototypicality judgments as inverted perception. In Gisbert Fanselow, Caroline Féry, Matthias Schlesewsky & Ralf Vogel (eds.): Gradience in Grammar, 167–184. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Abstract] Earlier version: Rutgers Optimality Archive 742, 2005/05/17. |
In sound change, the prototype effect leads to non-teleological phonetic enhancement and chain shifts:
| 2008 | Paul Boersma & Silke Hamann: The evolution of auditory dispersion in bidirectional constraint grammars. Phonology 25: 217–270. Material: scripts for the simulations and pictures. Earlier version: Rutgers Optimality Archive 909, 2007/04/17. Earlier version: Handout OCP 3, Budapest, 2006/01/17. |
Go to Paul Boersma’s home page