Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Recursive prosody is not finite-state

  • Stony Brook University
  • University of Utah

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper investigates bounds on the generative capacity of prosodic processes, by focusing on the complexity of recursive prosody in coordination contexts in English (Wagner, 2010). Although all phonological processes and most prosodic processes are computationally regular string languages, we show that recursive prosody is not. The output string language is instead parallel multiple context-free (Seki et al., 1991). We evaluate the complexity of the pattern over strings, and then move on to a characterization over trees that requires the expressivity of multi bottom-up tree transducers. In doing so, we provide a foundation for future mathematically grounded investigations of the syntax-prosody interface.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSIGMORPHON 2021 - 18th SIGMORPHON Workshop on Computational Research in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology, Proceedings of the Workshop
EditorsGarrett Nicolai, Kyle Gorman, Ryan Cotterell
PublisherAssociation for Computational Linguistics (ACL)
Pages11-22
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781954085626
StatePublished - 2021
Event18th SIGMORPHON Workshop on Computational Research in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology, SIGMORPHON 2021 - Virtual, Bangkok, Thailand
Duration: Aug 5 2021 → …

Publication series

NameSIGMORPHON 2021 - 18th SIGMORPHON Workshop on Computational Research in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology, Proceedings of the Workshop

Conference

Conference18th SIGMORPHON Workshop on Computational Research in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology, SIGMORPHON 2021
Country/TerritoryThailand
CityVirtual, Bangkok
Period08/5/21 → …

Cite this