Stress systems in language : a connectionist examination

Abstract: "Metrical phonology is a relatively successful linguistic theory that attempts to explain stress systems in language. This paper discusses a connectionist model that learns a variety of stress patterns without the incorporation, as processing primitives, of theoretical linguistic constructs such as metrical foot and parameter. An analysis of the learnability of various stress patterns is developed, based on learning results and connection weights developed for different stress systems. This analysis predicts that certain aspects of stress systems will be more difficult to learn, at least within the computational framework adopted.The model demonstrates an ability to generalize, and its encoding of knowledge of stress patterns indicates systematicity, with symmetries among stress patterns being reflected in the encoded knowledge."