Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber (ITB) is unusual due to its tolerance of non-vocalic syllabic nuclei. Rule-based and constraint-based accounts of ITB syllabification do not directly address the question of how complex the process is. Model theory and formal logic allow for comparison of complexity across different theories of phonology by identifying the computational power (or expressivity) of linguistic formalisms in a grammar-independent way. With these tools, I develop a mathematical formalism for representing ITB syllabification using Quantifier-Free (QF) logic, one of the least powerful logics known. This result indicates that ITB syllabification is relatively simple from a computational standpoint and that grammatical formalisms could succeed with even less powerful mechanisms than are currently accepted.
DOI: 10.7275/r5j67f4d
Author: Strother-Garcia, Kristina
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2777397604