The rate of assimilation of individual features to their target phonetic constraints varies as a function of the general target constraint itself, the segment class affected by the constraint, and the syllable involved. This rate is hypothesized as a measure of the strength or productivity of the phonological rule. (Author/DB)

Computer-based multidimensional scaling techniques are used to determine the dimensionality of grammatical variation in three large sets of data: Ross' (1973) Noun Phrase and fake Noun Phrase data; Sankoff's (1974) complementizer "que"-deletion (Montreal French) data; and Cedergren's (1973) syllable-final S-reduction (Panamanian Spanish) data. (DB)