Phonotactic Learning With Structure, Not Statistics

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Linguistic Inquiry

DOI

10.1162/LING.a.584

Abstract

We provide empirical evidence against Wilson & Gallagher’s 2018 claim that statistics is necessary for phonotactic learning. We implement BUFIA, a feature-based nonstatistical learner and, using the same data and case study as Wilson & Gallagher, show that this non-statistical learner is equally successful at learning phonotactics as the Maximum Entropy-based learner they use. This counters their conclusion that non-statistical phonotactic learning is impossible, while supporting their advocacy for feature-based representations in phonotactic learning.

Keywords

abductive inference, computational phonology, phonotactic learning

Department

Linguistics and Language Development

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