scholarly journals Optionality and locality: Evidence from Navajo sibilant harmony

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Harper Berkson
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
First Person ◽  
Statistical Nature ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Consonant Harmony ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Non Local

AbstractWhile many phonological processes are local, consonant harmony is of interest phonologically because it can occur non-locally. Sibilant harmony in Navajo requires that sibilants within a word have matching anteriority specifications. The process is described as being sometimes mandatory and sometimes optional, but neither the statistical nature of the occurrence in optional settings nor the factors contributing to the optionality are fully understood. This paper provides preliminary investigation into these issues using the first person possessive morpheme, which is underlyingly /ʃi-/ but may harmonize to [si-]. Experiment 1, an online grammaticality judgment survey, reveals that the harmonized prefix is dispreferred in all environments. Experiment 2 presents acoustic data from three Navajo speakers: though none harmonize overtly, the spectral mean and lower bound of frication energy of the prefixal fricative are affected by the presence of [+anterior] sibilants in noun stems. The overall implication of these findings is that harmony is not only optional but is dispreferred or wholly absent for some speakers. While multiple factors are investigated, the only one that consistently affects harmony is adjacency of the trigger and target, indicating that, although consonant harmony may indeed be a non-local process, its occurrence is heavily mediated by distance.

Targets, triggers, and directionality in non-local and local place assimilation in child and adult language

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-307
Author(s):  
Mi-Hui Cho ◽  
Shinsook Lee
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Consonant Harmony ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Place Assimilation ◽  
Korean Child ◽  
Non Local

Abstract Data collected from one Korean child in a longitudinal diary study present novel patterns of consonant harmony in that labials, coronals, and velars can be triggers and targets of both progressive and regressive non-local place assimilation in an early stage of development. The same child also shows some cases of local regressive place assimilation. In another study where 4 children's data were gathered from a naturalistic longitudinal study, local regressive place assimilation as well as conso-nant harmony is witnessed regardless of place features. In adult Korean, however, only coronal to labial/velar and labial to velar local regressive assimilation occurs. This paper argues that the non-local and local place assimilation is connected and shows that the connection can be accounted for in terms of different constraint rankings within the Optimality-theoretic framework. More specifically, it is shown that the Ident-Onset(place) constraint plays a decisive role even in the early stage of acquisition, unlike child English, accounting for the predominant regressive assimilation. Also, the Agree-Place constraint is exploded into two sub-constraints in Stage 3, capturing the asymmetrical behavior of assimilation. Further, the unranking of place features in early development gradually evolves to the fixed ranking which reflects the universal markedness hierarchy in adult Korean.

Success probabilities for second guessers

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (04) ◽  
pp. 1133-1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. O. Pittenger
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Success Probability ◽  
First Person ◽  
True Location ◽  
Rotationally Symmetric ◽  
The One ◽  
Sharp Lower Bound

Two people independently and with the same distribution guess the location of an unseen object in n-dimensional space, and the one whose guess is closer to the unseen object is declared the winner. The first person announces his guess, but the second modifies his unspoken idea by moving his guess in the direction of the first guess and as close to it as possible. It is shown that if the distribution of guesses is rotationally symmetric about the true location of the unseen object, ¾ is the sharp lower bound for the success probability of the second guesser. If the distribution is fixed and the dimension increases, then for a certain class of distributions, the success probability approaches 1.

Genetic and environmental effects in L1 phonological acquisitionThe case of consonant harmony in Greek child speech

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Tzakosta
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Input Frequency ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Consonant Harmony ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Greek Child ◽  
Ambient Language ◽  
Child Speech ◽  
Manner Of Articulation

AbstractConsonant harmony (CH) is a phenomenon commonly found in child language. Cross-linguistically, Place of Articulation (PoA), specifically the Coronal Node, undergoes CH, while regressive harmony seems to be the preferred directionality that CH takes (cf. Goad 2001a, b; Levelt 1994; Rose 2000, 2001). In the present study, drawing on naturalistic data from nine children acquiring Greek L1, we place emphasis on the fact that multiple factors need to be considered in parallel, in order to account for CH patterns: Not only PoA, but also Manner of Articulation (MoA) contributes to CH; consequently, (de)voicing or continuity harmony emerges. Although regressive harmony is generally favoured, markedness scales and word stress highly affect directionality. Coronal, stop and voiceless segments trigger and undergo CH depending on their degree of prominence and their position in the word. Harmony can be partial or full, i.e. either place or manner or both place and manner of articulation are targeted. Progressive harmony emerges when the triggers belong to the stressed syllable or when they are stops. Cases of double, bidirectional and recursive harmony are also reported. In general, Greek CH patterns are the product of combined factors determined by phonological principles and input frequency in the ambient language. In other words, the degree to which Greek CH patterns are different from cross-linguistic findings depends on the combination of UG principles and language specific/environmental effects, as well as the prominence of certain of these factors over others.

scholarly journals Revisiting the STRmixlikelihood ratio probability interval coverage considering multiple factors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo-Anne Bright ◽  
Shan-I Lee ◽  
JOHN BUCKLETON ◽  
Duncan Alexander Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Lower Bound ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typical Application ◽  
Probability Interval ◽  
Interval Method ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Number Of Layers ◽  
Global Coverage ◽  
Interval Coverage

In previously reported work a method for applying a lower bound to the variation induced by the Monte Carlo effect was trialled. This is implemented in the widely used probabilistic genotyping system, STRmix The approach did not give the desired 99% coverage. However, the method for assigning the lower bound to the MCMC variability is only one of a number of layers of conservativism applied in a typical application. We tested all but one of these sources of variability collectively and term the result the near global coverage. The near global coverage for all tested samples was greater than 99.5% for inclusionary average LRs of known donors. This suggests that when included in the probability interval method the other layers of conservativism are more than adequate to compensate for the intermittent underperformance of the MCMC variability component. Running for extended MCMC accepts was also shown to result in improved precision.

A Preliminary Investigation of Generalization to Untrained Words Following Two Treatments of Children's Word-Finding Problems

1990 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara S. Wing
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Treatment Programs ◽  
Retrieval Process ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Multistage Model ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Word Finding ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Semantic Treatment

An experiment with two groups of 6-year-old language-impaired children contrasted the effects of two treatment programs on generalization to untrained words in a picture naming task. A more traditional treatment focused on semantic associations and organization of the semantic store, and a newer treatment focused on the phonological and perceptual components of the retrieval process and involved practice in segmenting words and manipulating word segments as well as training in forming and holding visual and auditory images. Subjects receiving the phonological and perceptual treatment improved significantly in naming untrained pictures, but the semantic treatment group made no significant improvement. The design of the experiment and the results are related to Wolfs multistage model of the retrieval process. Because the results involved generalization to untrained words, they suggest that the perceptual and phonological processes described in Wolfs model may have been improved by the imagery and segmentation treatment.

scholarly journals Minimal energy for elastic inclusions

2010 ◽  
Vol 467 (2127) ◽  
pp. 695-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Knüpfer ◽  
Robert V. Kohn
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Elastic Energy ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Isoperimetric Problem ◽  
Minimal Energy ◽  
Fixed Volume ◽  
Optimal Energy ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Elastic Inclusions ◽  
Local Term

We consider a variant of the isoperimetric problem with a non-local term representing elastic energy. More precisely, our aim is to analyse the optimal energy of an inclusion of a fixed volume the energy of which is determined by surface and elastic energies. This problem has been studied extensively in the physical/metallurgical literature; however, the analysis has mainly been either (i) numerical, or (ii) restricted to a specific set of inclusion shapes, e.g. ellipsoids. In this article, we prove a lower bound for the energy, with no a priori hypothesis on the shape (or even number) of the inclusions.

THE AFFINE RATIONAL POTENTIAL MODEL

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150031
Author(s):  
THE ANH NGUYEN ◽  
FRANK THOMAS SEIFRIED
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Term Structure ◽  
Potential Model ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Model Specification ◽  
Currency Options ◽  
Rational Potential ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Rational Term

We develop a class of rational term structure models in the framework of the potential approach based upon a family of positive supermartingales that are driven by an affine Markov process. These models generally feature nonnegative interest rates and analytic pricing formulae for zero bonds, caps, swaptions, and European currency options, even in the presence of multiple factors. Moreover, in a model specification, the short rate stays near the zero lower bound for an extended period.

scholarly journals Learning Strictly Local Subsequential Functions

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Chandlee ◽  
Rémi Eyraud ◽  
Jeffrey Heinz
Keyword(s):  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Positive Data ◽  
Strict Locality ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Theoretic Characterization ◽  
Future Work

We define two proper subclasses of subsequential functions based on the concept of Strict Locality (McNaughton and Papert, 1971; Rogers and Pullum, 2011; Rogers et al., 2013) for formal languages. They are called Input and Output Strictly Local (ISL and OSL). We provide an automata-theoretic characterization of the ISL class and theorems establishing how the classes are related to each other and to Strictly Local languages. We give evidence that local phonological and morphological processes belong to these classes. Finally we provide a learning algorithm which provably identifies the class of ISL functions in the limit from positive data in polynomial time and data. We demonstrate this learning result on appropriately synthesized artificial corpora. We leave a similar learning result for OSL functions for future work and suggest future directions for addressing non-local phonological processes.

Success probabilities for second guessers

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1133-1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. O. Pittenger
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Success Probability ◽  
First Person ◽  
True Location ◽  
Rotationally Symmetric ◽  
The One ◽  
Sharp Lower Bound

Two people independently and with the same distribution guess the location of an unseen object in n-dimensional space, and the one whose guess is closer to the unseen object is declared the winner. The first person announces his guess, but the second modifies his unspoken idea by moving his guess in the direction of the first guess and as close to it as possible. It is shown that if the distribution of guesses is rotationally symmetric about the true location of the unseen object, ¾ is the sharp lower bound for the success probability of the second guesser. If the distribution is fixed and the dimension increases, then for a certain class of distributions, the success probability approaches 1.

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