Shifting paradigms: gradient structure in morphology

Abstract

Teaser: Is probability part of the grammar? Evidence is accumulating that word structure is inherently graded.Keywords: morphology, probability, gradience, word structure, morpheme, affix, paradigmatics, analogy, productivity, relative frequency, juncture, level ordering 1 Abstract:Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. A vigorous ongoing debate addresses the question of how such internal structure is best accounted for, by means of lexical entries and deterministic symbolic rules, or by means of probabilistic subsymbolic networks implicitly encoding structural similarities in connection weights. In this review, we separate the question of subsymbolic versus symbolic implementation from the question of deterministic versus probabilistic structure. We outline a growing body of evidence, mostly external to the above debate, indicating that morphological structure is indeed intrinsically graded. By allowing probability into the grammar, progress can be made toward solving some long-standing puzzles in morphological theory. 2Shifting paradigms: gradient structure in morphology

Three factors in language variation

“…Within the component of morphological computation, it is well established that the processing of exceptions (e.g., irregulars) is strongly correlated with their frequency (see Pinker & Ullman 2002 for reviews). Such ndings have been considered problematic for discrete representations in generative morphology-see Seidenberg & Gonnerman (2000), Hay & Baayen (2006)-but that would be far too hasty; see Yang (2008) for general discussion of probabilistic matters in generative grammar. When understood in terms of modern computer science algorithms, formal models of linguistic competence can be directly translate into a performance model (cf.…”

Productivity and Reuse in Language

“…Derivational morphology is characterized by a broad cline of affixes of differing levels of productivity. This sort of gradience is exactly the kind of structure we might expect probabilistic models to excel at capturing (Hay & Baayen, 2005). In contrast, the English past tense's regular +ed rule (e.g., walk/walked) is highly productive, while the various irregular form classes (e.g., sing/sang, sleep/slept, etc.)…”

Morphology and Language Acquisition

“…The Wug test is now extensively used in a wide range of studies (see e.g., Bybee and Slobin 1982;Bybee and Moder 1983;Marcus et al 1992;Clahsen 1999;Hahn and Nakisa 2000;Albright and Hayes 2003;Hahn and Nakisa 2000;Hayes et al 2009;Zhang and Lai 2010;Becker et al 2011) which subsequently have had considerable influence in linguistic theorizing (Pinker 1989;Tomasello 2003;Taylor 2003;Hay and Baayen 2005). Yet the Wug test by no means provides a direct window into morphology.…”