Modeling Reduplication with 2-way Finite-State Transducers
Hossep Dolatian, Jeffrey Heinz · 2018
This article describes a novel approach to the computational modeling of reduplication.Reduplication is a well-studied linguistic phenomenon.However, it is often treated as a stumbling block within finite-state treatments of morphology.Most finite-state implementations of computational morphology cannot adequately capture the productivity of unbounded copying in reduplication, nor can they adequately capture bounded copying.We show that an understudied type of finite-state machines, two-way finite-state transducers (2way FSTs), captures virtually all reduplicative processes, including total reduplication.2-way FSTs can model reduplicative typology in a way which is convenient, easy to design and debug in practice, and linguisticallymotivated.By virtue of being finite-state, 2way FSTs are likewise incorporable into existing finite-state systems and programs.A small but representative typology of reduplicative processes is described in this article, alongside their corresponding 2-way FST models.