This paper shows that the properties of locality observed for patterns of long-distance consonant agreement and disagreement belong to a well-defined and relatively simple class of subregular formal languages (stringsets) called the Tier-based Strictly 2-Local languages, and argues that analyzing them as such has desirable theoretical implications. Specifically, treating the two elements of a long-distance dependency as adjacent segments on the computationally defined notion of a tier allows for a unified account of locality that necessarily extends to the cross-linguistically variable behavior of neutral segments (transparency and blocking). This result is significant in light of the long-standing and persistent problems that long-distance dependencies have raised for phonological theory, with current approaches still predicting several pathological patterns that have little or no empirical support.
This paper reports on a series of artificial grammar learning experiments focused on locality relations in patterns of long-distance consonant agreement (harmony) and disagreement (dissimilation). Participants in experimental conditions were exposed to dependencies affecting stem-suffix pairs of liquids at either a short-range (transvocalic, CVCVLV-LV) or medium-range (beyond-transvocalic, CVLVCV-LV) distance. Two experiments used a poverty of stimulus paradigm, offering no information about the other distance level; participants interpreted short-range interaction as a strictly transvocalic dependency but medium-range interaction as unbounded, generalizing to other distances. Two experiments employed a 'rich stimulus' paradigm, where training data unambiguously indicated the absence of any dependency at the other distance; this enabled probing of specific locality patterns, in particular strictly beyond-transvocalic dependencies. The constraint-based Agreement by Correspondence model of non-adjacent consonant interactions predicts such patterns to be possible for dissimilation but not harmony. The results do not support this hypothesis: Participants seem to have serious difficulty learning strictly beyond-transvocalic dependencies of either kind. Our findings are more consistent with recent proposals that the space of learnable phonotactic restrictions is delimited by the Tier-based Strictly 2-Local class of formal languages. Strictly transvocalic and unbounded dependencies lie within this region, whereas strictly beyond-transvocalic dependencies are more complex, falling outside the learner's hypothesis space.Practice CVCV (8) CVCV-li (8) CVCV-ɹu (8) 24Training CVCVLV (96) CVCVlV-li (96) CVCVɹV-li (96) CVCVlV-ɹu (96) CVCVɹV-ɹu (96) 480 CVLVCV (96) CVlVCV-li (96) CVɹVCV-li (96) CVlVCV-ɹu (96) CVɹVCV-ɹu (96) 480 CVCVCV (96) CVCVCV-li (96) CVCVCV-ɹu (96) 288Testing CVCVLV (32) CVCVlV-li (16) CVCVɹV-li (16) CVCVlV-ɹu (16) CVCVɹV-ɹu (16) 96 CVLVCV (32) CVlVCV-li (16) CVɹVCV-li (16) CVlVCV-ɹu (16) CVɹVCV-ɹu (16) 96 LVCVCV (32) lVCVCV-li (16) ɹVCVCV-li (16) lVCVCV-ɹu (16) ɹVCVCV-ɹu (16) 96 Total = 1560
Xeroradiographs and conventional film were compared for their ability to reveal approximal surface caries in extracted primary teeth. Ultraspeed film and xeroradiographs were found to be superior to Ektaspeed film for detecting approximal surface carious lesions. Observers failed to detect at least 25% of the carious lesions that were present (false negatives) and also considered approximately 21% of the intact surfaces to be carious (false positives). Lesions were detected with increasing accuracy as they penetrated further into the dentin.
This paper characterizes the Output Tier-based Strictly k-Local (OTSL k) class of string-tostring functions, which are relevant for modeling long-distance phonological processes as input-output maps. After showing that any OTSL k function can be learned when k and the tier are given, we present a new algorithm that induces the tier itself when k = 2 and provably learns any total OTSL 2 function in polynomial time and data-the first such learner for any class of tier-based functions.
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