Computational Phonology (LIN 626)

Revised Syllabus

This class on Slack for asynchronous Question and Answer.

Classes and office hours will be held at the hours posted above online with Zoom. The Meeting ID is 792-469-023.

Recordings of classes with chat sessions are available at this shared google drive folder

07 May 2020

• Please attend Aniello De Santo's dissertation defense!

05 May 2020

• Mohammad leads discussion on QFLFP.
• I reviewed and concluded the course.

30 Apr 2020

• Jeff's slides on Hayes and Jo.

28 Apr 2020

• Andrija presented Chandlee and Jardine (submitted) on BMRS.
• Upcoming classes:
  • Thursday 4/30: Jeff on Hayes and Jo
  • Tuesday 5/5: Mohammad on Chandlee and Jardine Quantifier-Free Least Fixed Point logic.
  • Thursday 5/7: Course Review

23 Apr 2020

• Jeff finished his presentation.
• Stacie presented Walker and Proctor 2019.

21 Apr 2020

• Ayla finished leading her discussion.
• Jeff presented his talk on What does learning mean?

16 Apr 2020

• Kalina finished leading her discussion.
• Ayla led a discussion on on Chandlee et al. 2019. We got up through section 7 the algorithm. Come next Tuesday prepared to ask questions!
• I will present big-picture issues on computational learning theory next Tuesday, and Andrija and Stacie will present next Thursday.

14 Apr 2020

• Scott led a discussion on his short paper on non-derived environment effects.
• Kalina led a discussion on chapter 4 of Strother-Garcia's 2019 dissertation. Here are her slides.

09 Apr 2020

• Dakotah led a discussion on his in-progress mansucript: Relativized Adjacency.
• We planned the next three classes:
  • April 14: Scott on A Logical Analysis of Derived Environment Effects in Phonology
  • April 14: Kalina on chapter 4 of Strother-Garcia's 2019 dissertation
  • April 16: Ayla on Chandlee et al. 2019 Learning with Partially Ordered Representations
  • April 16: Jeff on computational learning theory more generally
  • April 21: Andrija on Recursive Schemes for Phonological Analysis by Chandlee and Jardine (2020 MS)
  • April 21: Stacie on The organization and structure of rhotics in American English rhymes by Walker and Proctor (2019).

07 Apr 2020

• We had a discussion today about possible research projects.
• Here are many papers we may be looking at over the next several weeks (in no particular order).
  • [pdf] Walker, Rachel and Michael Proctor. (2019). The organization and structure of rhotics in American English rhymes. Phonology 36, 457–495.
  • [pdf ] Kristina Strother-Garcia. 2019. Using Model Theory in Phonology: A Novel Characterization of Syllable Structure and Syllabification. Chapter 4
  • Scott Nelson. 2020. A Logical Analysis of Derived Environment Effects in Phonology. Unpublished MS.
  • [pdf] Siddharth Bhaskar, Jane Chandlee, Adam Jardine, and Christopher Oakden. Boolean monadic recursive schemes as a logical characterization of the subsequential functions. In LATA 14, pp. 157-169. LNCS 12038.
  • [pdf] Jane Chandlee and Adam Jardine. 2020. Recursive Schemes for Phonological Analysis. Unpublished MS.
  • [pdf] Jane Chandlee and Adam Jardine. Quantifier-free Least-Fixed Point Functions for Phonology. Proceedings of MOL 16, pp. 50-62.
  • [pdf] Jane Chandlee, Remi Eyraud, Jeffrey Heinz, Adam Jardine, and Jonathan Rawski. Learning with Partially Ordered Representations. Proceedings of MOL 16, pp. 91-101.
  • Dakotah Lambert. 2020. Relativized Adjacency. Unpublished MS.
  • [pdf] Larry Hyman. 1975. Phonology: Theory and Analysis. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Chapter 2
  • [pdf] Bruce Hayes and Jinyoung Jo. 2019. Balinese stem phonotactics and the subregularity hypothesis. Unpublished MS.
  • [pdf] H. Jerome Keisler and Joel Robbin. 1996. Mathematical Logic and Computability. McGraw-Hill. Chapter 2 (2.1-2.4) and/or Chapter 3 (3.1-3.2)
  • [pdf] Marc Simpson. 2010. From Alternations to Rules. Masters Thesis, Concordia University.
  • [pdf] Ezer Rasin, Iddo Berger, Nur Lan, Roni Katzir. 2018. Learning rule-based morpho-phonology. MS.
  • [pdf] Adam Jardine. A subregular approach to the problem of learning underlying representations. Tel Aviv University Linguistics Colloquium, December 12, 2019. Slide presentation.

02 Apr 2020

• We finished the slides from last class, focusing on the connection between locality and quantification in the context of transformations. In particular we saw how functional binary relations (such as successor but not precedence) can be included in a model signature as a function, which allows 'local' conditions to be expressed without quantification (in contrast to FO and MSO logic).
• Please begin thinking about possible research directions.

31 Mar 2020

• We continued to go over the slides from last class, focusing on the SL and SP classes of constraints.
• Short papers were returned with feedback.
• Extra time for the subregular constraint exercises is available if needed.

SPRING BREAK

• Spring Break has been extended through March 27.

12 Mar 2020

• Today is our first attempt at synchronous, long-distance learning over the internet.
  • Our slack workspace is here: lin626spring2-7dd9216.slack.com
  • Note the videoconference has been recorded following best practices of synchronous, online education.
• Here are today's slides on families of constraints defined with propositional logic.
• Here are subregular constraint exercises that are due on March 31 (which we will go over partially in class today.)

10 Mar 2020

• We began exploring constraints definable with propositional logic, where the atomic propositions correspond to connected relational structures.

05 Mar 2020

• We finished our discussion of weighted logic.

03 Mar 2020

• I answered some questions about FO/MSO constraints and transformations.
• We went over weighted logic and two examples.
• We will go over a couple more examples next class.

27 Feb 2020

• We continued discussing how to define string-to-string functions logically.
• Please pick a phonology problem to analyze for your short paper by by Thursday March 5. Here are some example short papers as examples of what is expected for your short paper due March 12 (feedback welcome):
  • Tibetan numerals
  • Russian voicing assimilation
  • Polish saltation

25 Feb 2020

• We continued discussing how to define string-to-string functions logically.
• Please read Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 3 by Thursday February 27.

20 Feb 2020

• We went over the HW assignment due today.
• We began discussing how to define string-to-string functions logically.
• Please read Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 3 by Thursday February 27.

18 Feb 2020

• Class cancelled.

13 Feb 2020

• We discussed the interplay of representation and computational power.
• We emphasized that the four logical languages studied so far --- FO(succ), MSO(succ), FO(prec), MSO(prec) --- are just the tip of the iceberg.
• Please complete HW 1 on Logic and turn in to me, next Thursday Feb 20, 2020.
• Class on February 18 is cancelled.

11 Feb 2020

• We finished discussing 2.6 from last class.
• Please finsih reading Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 2for next time (so section 2.7)

06 Feb 2020

• We finished reviewing the syntax and semantics of MSO logic from the handout in last class.
• We introduced Wolfgang Thomas' theorem on which constraints are FO-definable with successor.
• Please read Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 2, pages 39-46 section 2.6 for next time. You can stop when you reach section 2.7.

04 Feb 2020

• We went over class 3 handout on logical languages.
• For next class, please do exercise 4 in the handout. We will go over at the beginning of class and I will check for completion.
• If you want to get ahead in the reading, please begin reading Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 2, pages 39-46 section 2.6. You can stop when you reach section 2.7. This reading should be completed by Tuesday, February 11.

30 Jan 2020

• We went over class 2 handout on model-theoretic models.
• Read Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 2, pages 23-39 for next time. You can stop when you reach section 2.6.

28 Jan 2020

• LIN 626 Syllabus.
• We went over class 1 slides.
• Read for next time.
  • Doing Computational Phonology, Chapter 1
  • Doing Computational Phonology, references