The computational power of harmonic forms

This chapter discusses the nature of vowel harmony (VH) from a computational perspective. In particular, it considers the dependencies present in surface forms of phonological representations obeying various types of harmony. It situates this typological landscape of dependencies within a corresponding landscape of computational functions. The precise nature of these functions gives us a principled window into the characteristic similarities and differences between harmony types. It goes on to show that this landscape is restricted, and that VH is tightly constrained typologically, describing how the interactions of these functions elucidate key properties of harmonic systems, and how these properties enable new avenues for typological and computational work.