A CONNECTIONIST ACCOUNT OF FRENCH SYLLABICATION

In this paper, we present a connectionist approach to phonology. We sh ow that a process like syllabification, which in a symbolic framework is generally thought of as being the outcome of some kind of parsing b y a dedicated algorithm, can be accounted for in a pure dynamic way. I n this approach, syllables and syllabic constituency are by no means p rimitives and the labelling of syllable parts is not axiomatic. They a re the by-product of the linear integration process of segments. In ot her words, syllables are not the building parts of words. On the contr ary, in as much as words are made of sounds, given the dynamic propert ies of those sounds and in particular their tendency to interact in a continuous manner, our model predicts that the aggregation of sounds w ill give rise to self-organized processes from which syllables and syl labic constituents finally emerge. The universality of syllabic organi sation in human languages is thus given a materialistic, quasi-phoneti c grounding.