Strictly local phonological processes

This dissertation identifies a strong computational property of phonological and morphological processes with local triggers. It is shown that the input-output mapping that underlies these processes can be modeled with Strictly Local (SL) functions, a previously undefined class of subregular relations. The SL functions, which are divided into two proper subclasses of subsequential functions (the Input SL functions and Output SL functions) are given an automata-theoretic characterization by combining the properties of subsequential transduction (Mohri, 1997) and the Strictly Local formal languages (McNaughton and Papert, 1971; Rogers and Pullum, 2011; Rogers et al., 2013). Importantly, the property of strict…