scholarly journals On the Complexity and Typology of Inflectional Morphological Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 327-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Cotterell ◽  
Christo Kirov ◽  
Mans Hulden ◽  
Jason Eisner
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Model ◽  
Conditional Entropy ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Empirical Trade ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms ◽  
Surface Realization

We quantify the linguistic complexity of different languages’ morphological systems. We verify that there is a statistically significant empirical trade-off between paradigm size and irregularity: A language’s inflectional paradigms may be either large in size or highly irregular, but never both. We define a new measure of paradigm irregularity based on the conditional entropy of the surface realization of a paradigm— how hard it is to jointly predict all the word forms in a paradigm from the lemma. We estimate irregularity by training a predictive model. Our measurements are taken on large morphological paradigms from 36 typologically diverse languages.

Inflectional Morphology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Stump
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Internal Morphology ◽  
Theoretical Significance ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Canonical Relation ◽  
Nonconcatenative Morphology ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms ◽  
Extended Exponence

Inflection is the systematic relation between words’ morphosyntactic content and their morphological form; as such, the phenomenon of inflection raises fundamental questions about the nature of morphology itself and about its interfaces. Within the domain of morphology proper, it is essential to establish how (or whether) inflection differs from other kinds of morphology and to identify the ways in which morphosyntactic content can be encoded morphologically. A number of different approaches to modeling inflectional morphology have been proposed; these tend to cluster into two main groups, those that are morpheme-based and those that are lexeme-based. Morpheme-based theories tend to treat inflectional morphology as fundamentally concatenative; they tend to represent an inflected word’s morphosyntactic content as a compositional summing of its morphemes’ content; they tend to attribute an inflected word’s internal structure to syntactic principles; and they tend to minimize the theoretical significance of inflectional paradigms. Lexeme-based theories, by contrast, tend to accord concatenative and nonconcatenative morphology essentially equal status as marks of inflection; they tend to represent an inflected word’s morphosyntactic content as a property set intrinsically associated with that word’s paradigm cell; they tend to assume that an inflected word’s internal morphology is neither accessible to nor defined by syntactic principles; and they tend to treat inflection as the morphological realization of a paradigm’s cells. Four important issues for approaches of either sort are the nature of nonconcatenative morphology, the incidence of extended exponence, the underdetermination of a word’s morphosyntactic content by its inflectional form, and the nature of word forms’ internal structure. The structure of a word’s inventory of inflected forms—its paradigm—is the locus of considerable cross-linguistic variation. In particular, the canonical relation of content to form in an inflectional paradigm is subject to a wide array of deviations, including inflection-class distinctions, morphomic properties, defectiveness, deponency, metaconjugation, and syncretism; these deviations pose important challenges for understanding the interfaces of inflectional morphology, and a theory’s resolution of these challenges depends squarely on whether that theory is morpheme-based or lexeme-based.

The Dutch verb-spelling paradox in social media

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tijn Schmitz ◽  
Robert Chamalaun ◽  
Mirjam Ernestus
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Everyday Language ◽  
Clear Preference ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Language Behavior ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms

Abstract Although the Dutch verb spelling system seems very straightforward, many spelling errors are made, both by children and adults (e.g., Sandra, Frisson, & Daems 2004). These errors mainly occur with verbs with two or more homophonous forms in their inflectional paradigms. Ample experimental research has been carried out on this topic, but these studies hardly reflect everyday language behavior. In the current corpus study, we reassessed previously found experimental results, but now in a Twitter corpus containing 17,432 tweets with homophonous verb forms. In accordance with previous results, we found a clear preference for the suffix -<d> compared to both -<dt> and -<t> , as well as a frequency effect, resulting in fewer errors for more frequent word forms. Furthermore, the results revealed that users with more followers make fewer errors, and that more errors are made during the evening and night.

Overabundance resulting from language contact

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Felicity Meakins ◽  
Sasha Wilmoth
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Models ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Generalized Linear Mixed Models ◽  
Linear Mixed Models ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Morphological Complexity ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms

The reduction of morphological complexity, particularly in inflectional paradigms, is not uncommon in language contact. One area of morphological complexity which has received less attention is variation within the cells of a paradigm, e.g. ‘dived’ and ‘dove’ as different past tense word forms of {DIVE} in English. This type of morphological complexity, where multiple forms are realized in the same cell in a paradigm is termed ‘overabundance’. This chapter examines the development of overabundance in the subject-marking system of Gurindji Kriol, and claims that increasing complexity in this dimension is the result of language contact. We analyse new data from Gurindji children using generalized linear mixed models to determine whether the complexity in the case paradigm has stabilized or whether complexification is on-going. We show that overabundance in Gurindji Kriol is an example of a contact-induced change which involves the complexification of an inflectional paradigm rather than its simplification.

scholarly journals Renyi and Tsallis formulations of noise-disturbance trade-off relations

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3&4) ◽  
pp. 313-331
Author(s):  
Alexey E. Rastegin
Keyword(s):  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Conditional Entropy ◽  
Uncertainty Relations ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Entropic Uncertainty Relations ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Information Theoretic Measures ◽  
Information Theoretic Approach

We address an information-theoretic approach to noise and disturbance in quantum measurements. Properties of corresponding probability distributions are characterized by means of both the R´enyi and Tsallis entropies. Related information-theoretic measures of noise and disturbance are introduced. These definitions are based on the concept of conditional entropy. To motivate introduced measures, some important properties of the conditional R´enyi and Tsallis entropies are discussed. There exist several formulations of entropic uncertainty relations for a pair of observables. Trade-off relations for noise and disturbance are derived on the base of known formulations of such a kind.

Joint predictiveness in inflectional paradigms

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Bonami ◽  
Sacha Beniamine
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Conditional Entropy ◽  
Entropy Measure ◽  
Principal Parts ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms ◽  
Filling Problem

This paper contributes to addressing the Paradigm Cell Filling Problem (PCFP) in inflectional paradigms, as defined by Ackerman et al. (2009) . We define a method for extending the use of conditional entropy to address the PCFP to prediction based on multiple paradigm cells. We apply this method to French and European Portugese and show that, on average, knowledge of multiple paradigm cells is dramatically more predictive than knowledge of a single cell. Moreover, this new entropy measure proves useful in studying principal parts systems, which correspond to sets of predictors yielding a null entropy. Using a graded measure allows us to highlight the relevance of non-categorical or “good enough” principal parts systems.

scholarly journals The Testing of Empirical Trade Off Theory in Determining Value of the Firm in Manufacturing Industries in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Eka Bertuah ◽  
Anie Budiati
Keyword(s):  
Capital Structure ◽  
Ownership Structure ◽  
Institutional Ownership ◽  
Fixed Effect Model ◽  
External Funding ◽  
Current Ratio ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Return On Equity ◽  
Empirical Trade ◽  
The Capital Structure

This research aims to determine the application of trade off theory in determining the value of the firm by observing the factors of institutional ownership structure, liquidity and profitability that affect the capital structure and test the differences in capital structure in LQ-45 firms. The results showed that the independent variables jointly had a significant effect on the dependent variable of 15.90% with the fixed effect model as a fit model for measuring capital structure. The results showed that the structure of institutional ownership and profitability had a significant effect on capital structure variables, while the current ratio had no significant effect on capital structure variables. This research found that firms with high Institutional Ownership Structure (KPI) can increase external funding so that the capital structure is higher. Liquidity (current ratio) does not affect the capital structure (DER). Low profitability (return on equity) will increase the capital structure (DER), because firms need external funding to overcome their profitability. The results of this research indicate that there is no difference between the capital structure of firms that have high value and low value. Thus, the results of the research do not support the trade off theory in capital structure decisions in manufacturing firms in Indonesia.

scholarly journals The reward-complexity trade-off in schizophrenia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Gershman ◽  
Lucy Lai
Keyword(s):  
State Dependence ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Capacity Limit ◽  
The World ◽  
Empirical Trade ◽  
Lower Complexity ◽  
Optimal Reward ◽  
Theoretical Results

AbstractAction selection requires a policy that maps states of the world to a distribution over actions. The amount of memory needed to specify the policy (the policy complexity) increases with the state-dependence of the policy. If there is a capacity limit for policy complexity, then there will also be a trade-off between reward and complexity, since some reward will need to be sacrificed in order to satisfy the capacity constraint. This paper empirically characterizes the trade-off between reward and complexity for both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Schizophrenia patients adopt lower complexity policies on average, and these policies are more strongly biased away from the optimal reward-complexity trade-off curve compared to healthy controls. How-ever, healthy controls are also biased away from the optimal trade-off curve, and both groups appear to lie on the same empirical trade-off curve. We explain these findings using a cost-sensitive actor-critic model. Our empirical and theoretical results shed new light on cognitive effort abnormalities in schizophrenia.

German noun inflection revisited

2001 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES KILBURY
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Representation ◽  
Formal Description ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Common Structure ◽  
Hierarchical Relations ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Knowledge Representation Language ◽  
Representation Language ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms

Cahill & Gazdar (henceforth C&G) have presented their analysis of German noun inflection in issue 35.1 (1999) of this journal. As they emphasize (on page 4), the lexical knowledge representation language DATR they employ is theoretically neutral and can serve to encode descriptions set in entirely diverse theoretical frameworks, not just those that are theoretically close to theirs. The formalism is just as amenable to ‘item and process’ and ‘word and paradigm’ analyses as it is to the affixal ‘item and arrangement’ perspective. Moreover, distinct DATR theories (i.e., concrete descriptions) may differ greatly in their input (queries) and output (returned values) while they share a common structure reflecting the inheritance relations arising from the described phenomena.In this paper I will present another analysis of German noun inflection, encoded in the same formalism but based on the theory of MINIMALIST MORPHOLOGY developed by Wunderlich and his associates (Wunderlich & Fabri 1995, Wunderlich 1997a, 1999b). In his account German nouns are mapped into tree-based representations of their inflectional paradigms, whereas C&G map tuples of lexemes and inflectional categories (case and number) into individual inflected word forms. The major linguistic gain of my analysis is that the principal strength of Wunderlich's account, the formal description of relations within paradigms, is combined with the formal description of hierarchical relations BETWEEN paradigms, which is central for C&G but given little attention by Wunderlich.

Construction Morphology

2018 ◽  
pp. 364-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Masini ◽  
Jenny Audring
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Recent Model ◽  
New Words ◽  
Construction Morphology ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Flexible Architecture ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms

The chapter provides an outline of Construction Morphology (Booij 2010), a recent model of morphology. The theory follows the basic tenets of Construction Grammar in treating form–meaning pairs (‘constructions’) as the basic units of language and assuming a continuum rather than a split between grammar and lexicon. Words and multi-word units are stored in memory if they have noncompositional properties and/or are conventionalized and frequent. Lexical items show a rich internal structure and are highly interconnected. Generalizations over stored items are captured in schemas: constructions consisting partly or entirely of variables. If productive, such schemas serve as templates for new words and word forms. Relations between schemas are captured in second-order schemas, which are particularly useful in modelling inflectional paradigms and paradigmatic word formation. The model offers a flexible architecture that complements construction-based syntax and accommodates both regularities and idiosyncrasies, as well as variation and change.

Intersecting formatives and inflectional predictability: How do speakers and learners predict the correct form of Murrinhpatha verbs?

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Conditional Entropy ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Relevant Model ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Recent Information ◽  
Incomplete Knowledge ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Correct Form ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms

This article investigates the phenomenon of inflection by intersecting formatives, that is to say, where an exponence is encoded by a combination of independently distributed phonological increments. Formative independence is defined in terms of conditional entropy. The verb inflection system of Murrinhpatha, an Aboriginal language of northern Australia, is analysed as a particularly complex example of intersecting formatives, and in general we can say that inflectional exponence in this language is highly irregular or unpredictable. Recent information-theoretic approaches to morphology provide us with methods for formalising and measuring the unpredictability of Murrinhpatha verb inflection. We add a distinct formalism that models the probability of correct inflectional prediction given incomplete knowledge of the inflectional paradigms in the language. We argue that this is a particularly relevant model for Murrinhpatha speaker/learners, because the language has a small, closed class of finite verb lexemes, most of which have their own idiosyncratic inflectional paradigm. There are not productively applied inflectional classes. In this model of inflectional predictability, intersecting formatives are in some cases the only chance a learner/speaker has of predicting the correct form.

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