Expectation Driven Learning of Phonology

Jarosz, Gaja. 2015. Expectation Driven Learning of Phonology. University of Massachusetts manuscript.

Abstract

This paper develops a novel approach to learning phonological hidden structure relying on underexplored expectation driven learning strategies rooted in the machine learning literature. A novel probabilistic grammatical representation that enables estimation of expectation driven learning updates, and two learning algorithms utilizing these updates, are introduced. The algorithms are shown to surpass the performance of existing error-driven learning models on a large test system with hidden metrical structure. The paper then shows that the learning strategies are fully general and can also be successfully applied to learning of an entirely different sort of hidden structure created by unknown underlying representations.

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