Optimizing over subsequences generates context-sensitive languages

Andrew Lamont


Abstract
Phonological generalizations are finite-state. While Optimality Theory is a popular framework for modeling phonology, it is known to generate non-finite-state mappings and languages. This paper demonstrates that Optimality Theory is capable of generating non-context-free languages, contributing to the characterization of its generative capacity. This is achieved with minimal modification to the theory as it is standardly employed.
Anthology ID:
2021.tacl-1.32
Volume:
Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Volume 9
Month:
Year:
2021
Address:
Cambridge, MA
Editors:
Brian Roark, Ani Nenkova
Venue:
TACL
SIG:
Publisher:
MIT Press
Note:
Pages:
528–537
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2021.tacl-1.32
DOI:
10.1162/tacl_a_00382
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Andrew Lamont. 2021. Optimizing over subsequences generates context-sensitive languages. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 9:528–537.
Cite (Informal):
Optimizing over subsequences generates context-sensitive languages (Lamont, TACL 2021)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2021.tacl-1.32.pdf
Video:
 https://aclanthology.org/2021.tacl-1.32.mp4