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One-Level Phonology: Autosegmental Representations and Rules as Finite Automata

Paper · 1994 · Steven Bird and T. Mark Ellison

Summary

Bird and Ellison address a gap in phonology: autosegmental (nonlinear) phonology explained data such as tone patterns better than linear SPE-style or two-level models, but it lacked a precise, computable formal semantics. They propose "one-level phonology," a monostratal, declarative model. In it, finite automata serve as descriptions and tapes (strings) are the objects described, so rules and representations are no longer separate and rule ordering disappears. They introduce state-labeled finite automata (SFAs) and encode each autosegmental tier as an automaton. Association lines become synchronization marks, and tiers are combined by intersection. Logical conjunction, disjunction and negation map directly onto intersection, union and complement. A rewrite rule is read as logical implication, so it too becomes an automaton. Worked analyses cover Mende tone melodies and nonconcatenative Arabic verb morphology. The model stays within regular grammar power and is fully implemented. This matters because it extends finite-state techniques to nonlinear phonology and opens a route into constraint-based frameworks such as HPSG.

Key points

  • The paper defines SFAs as septuples whose states carry labels drawn from the alphabet, plus a flag for accepting the empty string. It proves SFAs equivalent to ordinary finite-state automata and defines concatenation, union, intersection, complement and state-labeled transducers.
  • Autosegments are annotated with the number of association lines they bear. Intersecting the tier automata and then projecting the result yields the surface interpretation; for example, a high/round chart resolves to the tape i⁺a⁺o⁺.
  • The model rests formally on a time-based semantics, developed by Bird and Klein (1990), that is built on precedence and overlap relations.
  • The model is compared with the transducer models of Kay (1987), Kornai (1991) and Wiebe (1992). The authors note that those models exceed regular power and, as far as the authors knew, had never been implemented.
  • In the Arabic analysis, 3 of the 15 triliteral verb forms (II, V, XII) violate the association convention. One-level phonology handles them by specifying associations lexically and intersecting root, form and vocalism automata.

Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.

 Institutions

🎓University of EdinburghEdinburgh · United Kingdom381 works · 80,747 citations

 Fields, topics and concepts

📚 Shelves 6The field of science this work belongs to (OpenAlex fields).Computer Science · 18,614 worksArts and Humanities · 17,450 worksLanguage and Linguistics · 17,296 worksPsychology · 1,649 worksExperimental and Cognitive Psychology · 930 worksComputational Theory and Mathematics · 321 works

Cite

Cite as Steven Bird and T. Mark Ellison. 1994. One-Level Phonology: Autosegmental Representations and Rules as Finite Automata. Computational Linguistics.

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

@article{bird1994one,
  title = {{One-Level Phonology: Autosegmental Representations and Rules as Finite Automata}},
  author = {Steven Bird and T. Mark Ellison},
  journal = {Computational Linguistics},
  year = {1994},
  url = {https://aclanthology.org/J94-1003/}
}

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