Learning French liaison with Gradient Symbolic Representations: Errors, Predictions, Consequences

Published in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of Phonology 2020, 2021

Recommended citation: Tessier, A.M. and K. Jesney (2021). Learning French liaison with Gradient Symbolic Representations: Errors, Predictions, Consequences. In R. Bennett et al (eds.) Proceedings of AMP 2020. https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/amphonology/article/view/4940/4655

Smolensky & Goldrick (2016) first made the case for Gradient Symbolic Representations (GSRs) as the inputs to phonological grammar using the phenomena of French liaison. In this paper, we follow up some of that views predictions and consequences, focusing on the acquisition of French liaison using GSRs. We compare our simulations of error-driven GSR learning with observed errors made by French-learning children, and find the results to be encouragingly similar.

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