Our thesis proposal aims at integrating word similarity measures in pattern ranking for relation extraction bootstrapping algorithms. We note that although many contributions have been done on pattern ranking schemas, few explored the use of word-level semantic similarity. Our hypothesis is that word similarity would allow better pattern comparison and better pattern ranking, resulting in less ...

Three experiments investigated the role of word stress and vowel harmony in speech segmentation. Finnish has fixed word stress on the initial syllable, and vowels from a front or back harmony set cannot co-occur within a word. In Experiment 1, we replicated the results of Suomi, McQueen, and Cutler (1997) showing that Finns use a mismatch in vowel harmony as a word boundary cue when the target-...

We present a novel word level vector representation based on symmetric patterns (SPs). For this aim we automatically acquire SPs (e.g., “X and Y”) from a large corpus of plain text, and generate vectors where each coordinate represents the cooccurrence in SPs of the represented word with another word of the vocabulary. Our representation has three advantages over existing alternatives: First, b...

We propose that boundary tones are best understood as derived from the interaction of constraints introduce at certain levels prosodic hierarchy and govern alignment those to segmental material. On this decomposition classic notion a tone, we expect find languages in which tone introduced by constituent surfaces away edge constituent. refer these 'mobile' tones. Informed quantitative analysis p...

This paper reports two experiments on the implicit learning of second language word stress rules and presents a methodological innovation. In both experiments L1 Cantonese L2 English participants practised pronouncing two-syllable Spanish words. Learning of a hidden stress regularity was measured by a judgment task. We assessed participants’ awareness of the stress rule by verbal reports, confi...