Emergent learning bias and the underattestation of simple patterns

This paper investigates the typology of word-initial and word-final place of articulation contrasts in stops, revealing two typological skews. First, languages tend to make restrictions based on syllable position alone, rather than banning particular places of articulation in word-final position. Second, restrictions based on place of articulation alone are underrepresented compared to restrictions that are based on position. This paper argues that this typological skew is the result of an emergent bias found in agent-based models of generational learning using the Perceptron learning algorithm and MaxEnt grammar using independently motivated constraints. Previous work on agent-based learning with MaxEnt has found a simplicity bias (Pater and Moreton 2012) which predicts the first typological skew, but fails to predict the second skew. This paper analyzes the way that the set of constraints in the grammar affects the relative learnability of different patterns, creating learning biases more elaborate than a simplicity bias, and capturing the observed typology.