Spanish diminutive formation without rules or constraints

Spanish diminutive formation is analyzed in terms of analogy, more precisely within the computationally explicit framework of analogical modeling of language (AML; Skousen 1989, 1992). Accordingly, all known diminutives are presumed to be stored in the mental lexicon as completely formed units with associative links to their base forms. 2460 diminutive types were identified in various corpora and served as both the analogical database and the test items. When memory is unhampered by noise in the system, the probability that a previously known form will be chosen as the diminutive of its base is 100%. However, a simulation was performed in which all of the 2460 diminutives were treated as if they were previously unknown. The analogical influence of other forms allowed the correct diminutive form to be chosen in 92% of the cases. What is more, roughly half of the errors were found to be actually attested forms, which raises the success rate to 96%. Another simulation was performed that demonstrates that individual and dialectal differences in diminutive formation arise due to differing contents of the mental lexicon across speakers, as well as to the influence of competing gangs of phonologically similar base forms.

从类推的角度对西班牙语指小词的构成进行了分析，更确切地说，是在语言类推建模（AML；斯库森1989年，1992年）的计算明确框架内进行的。因此，所有已知的指小词都被假定作为完整形成的单位存储在心理词典中，并与它们的基础形式有联想联系。在各种语料库中确定了2460种指小词类型，它们既作为类推数据库，又作为测试项目。当记忆不受系统中的干扰影响时，一个先前已知的形式被选为其基础形式的指小词的概率是100%。然而，进行了一次模拟，在模拟中所有2460个指小词都被当作是先前未知的。其他形式的类推影响使得在92%的情况下能够选出正确的指小词形式。而且，大约一半的错误被发现实际上是有例证的形式，这使得成功率提高到96%。还进行了另一次模拟，该模拟表明指小词构成中的个体差异和方言差异是由于说话者之间心理词典内容的不同，以及语音相似的基础形式的竞争群组的影响而产生的。