Towards an understanding of the syllable: Evidence from linguistic, psychological, and connectionist investigations of syllable structure

The syllable is a complex structural unit with varied manifestations. Understanding the syllable's role in language structure and language function proves difficult due to the syllables multi-faceted nature. This dissertation explores syllable structure from three different perspectives in hopes of providing conceptual linkages between the different structural manifestations of the syllable. The introductory chapter, borrowing heavily from linguistic theory, establishes that syllable structure is not a unitary construct and explicates the difference between "core" and "surface" syllabic structure. Core syllabic structure refers to a property of representation. Surface syllabic structure is considered a property of the process of syllabification. Chapter 2 examines the interaction of syllabic structure with on-line processing of language and shows that syllabic structure contributes to lexical decisions. Importantly, we establish that surface syllabic structure serves as the locus of syllabic priming effects. This finding has important implications for theories of language recognition and the conception of syllabic lexical representation. Chapter 3 explores a more fundamental concern, the development of syllabic structure. Connectionist simulations of syllable based morpho-phonological reduplication demonstrate that syllable-like constraints can be instantiated from surface level factors. Importantly, no overt hierarchical syllabic representation is used in these simulations. Analysis of the network's performance suggested that segmental similarity structure may have been utilized in arriving at a solution to this problem. A consideration of reduplication in the language Mokilese also demonstrated interactions between segmental and syllabic content. The intermixing of traditionally separate levels of language structure find natural interpretation in a connectionist theory of syllable structure. A third simulation extended these findings and showed that syllable-like structure could be extracted using a phonetically coded natural language data base. The findings from these simulations force us to reconsider the relationship between core and surface syllabic structure. The dissertation concludes with a consideration of these findings in relation to theories of language structure and language function.