Huteng Dai


2023

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Rethinking representations: A log-bilinear model of phonotactics
Huteng Dai | Connor Mayer | Richard Futrell
Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics 2023

2021

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Simple induction of (deterministic) probabilistic finite-state automata for phonotactics by stochastic gradient descent
Huteng Dai | Richard Futrell
Proceedings of the 18th SIGMORPHON Workshop on Computational Research in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

We introduce a simple and highly general phonotactic learner which induces a probabilistic finite-state automaton from word-form data. We describe the learner and show how to parameterize it to induce unrestricted regular languages, as well as how to restrict it to certain subregular classes such as Strictly k-Local and Strictly k-Piecewise languages. We evaluate the learner on its ability to learn phonotactic constraints in toy examples and in datasets of Quechua and Navajo. We find that an unrestricted learner is the most accurate overall when modeling attested forms not seen in training; however, only the learner restricted to the Strictly Piecewise language class successfully captures certain nonlocal phonotactic constraints. Our learner serves as a baseline for more sophisticated methods.

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Learning nonlocal phonotactics in Strictly Piecewise phonotactic model
Huteng Dai
Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics 2021

2020

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Work in Progress: Information-theoretic characterization of the subregular hierarchy
Huteng Dai | Richard Futrell
Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics 2020