Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology
The midpoint pathology (in the sense of Kager 2012) characterizes a type of unattested stress system in which the stressable window contracts to a single word-internal syllable in some words, but not others. Kager (2012) shows that the pathology is a prediction of analyses employing contextual lapse...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Muse - Johns Hopkins University Press
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107489 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3789-7662 |
| _version_ | 1811083537042898944 |
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| author | Stanton, Juliet |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Stanton, Juliet |
| author_sort | Stanton, Juliet |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The midpoint pathology (in the sense of Kager 2012) characterizes a type of unattested stress system in which the stressable window contracts to a single word-internal syllable in some words, but not others. Kager (2012) shows that the pathology is a prediction of analyses employing contextual lapse constraints (e.g. *ExtLapseR; no 000 strings at the right edge) and argues that the only way to avoid it is to eliminate these constraints from Con. This article explores an alternative: that systems exhibiting the midpoint pathology are unattested not because the constraints that would generate them are absent from Con, but because they are difficult to learn. This study belongs to a growing body of work exploring the idea that phonological typology is shaped by considerations of learnability.* |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:34:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/107489 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:34:38Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Muse - Johns Hopkins University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1074892022-09-28T08:43:59Z Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology Stanton, Juliet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Stanton, Juliet The midpoint pathology (in the sense of Kager 2012) characterizes a type of unattested stress system in which the stressable window contracts to a single word-internal syllable in some words, but not others. Kager (2012) shows that the pathology is a prediction of analyses employing contextual lapse constraints (e.g. *ExtLapseR; no 000 strings at the right edge) and argues that the only way to avoid it is to eliminate these constraints from Con. This article explores an alternative: that systems exhibiting the midpoint pathology are unattested not because the constraints that would generate them are absent from Con, but because they are difficult to learn. This study belongs to a growing body of work exploring the idea that phonological typology is shaped by considerations of learnability.* 2017-03-20T14:24:49Z 2017-03-20T14:24:49Z 2016-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1535-0665 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107489 Stanton, Juliet. “Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology.” Language 92.4 (2016): 753–791. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3789-7662 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0071 Language Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Muse - Johns Hopkins University Press Linguistic Society of America |
| spellingShingle | Stanton, Juliet Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology |
| title | Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology |
| title_full | Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology |
| title_fullStr | Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology |
| title_short | Learnability Shapes Typology: The Case of the Midpoint Pathology |
| title_sort | learnability shapes typology the case of the midpoint pathology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107489 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3789-7662 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stantonjuliet learnabilityshapestypologythecaseofthemidpointpathology |