A connectionist implementation of cognitive phonology

Abstract: "This paper reports on an initial implementation of Lakoff's theory of cognitive phonology in a connectionist network. Standard generative phonological theories require serial application of rules, which results in derivations with numerous intermediate states. This is incompatible with the connectionist goals of psychological and biological plausibility, and may also hinder learnability. Lakoff's theory of cognitive phonology offers a solution to some of these problems by providing an alternative way to think about derivations and ordered rules, and by eliminating the need for right-to-left iterative rule application. On the other hand, Lakoff's proposal presents certain computational difficulties due to its appeal to Harmony Theory. We present a reformulation of cognitive phonology using a novel clustering mechanism that completely eliminates iteration and permits an efficient feed-forward implementation."