The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance

The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance PDF Author: Robert C. Berwick
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780262021920
Category : Computational linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Written primarily from the perspective of computational theory, Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance presents a synthesis of some major recent developments in grammatical theory and its application to models of language performance. Its main thesis is that Chomsky's government-binding theory is a good foundation for models of both machine parsing and language learnability. Both authors are at MIT. Robert C. Berwick is Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Amy Weinberg is in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Their book is eleventh in the series Current Studies in Linguistics.

The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance

The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance PDF Author: Robert C. Berwick
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780262021920
Category : Computational linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
Written primarily from the perspective of computational theory, Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance presents a synthesis of some major recent developments in grammatical theory and its application to models of language performance. Its main thesis is that Chomsky's government-binding theory is a good foundation for models of both machine parsing and language learnability. Both authors are at MIT. Robert C. Berwick is Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Amy Weinberg is in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Their book is eleventh in the series Current Studies in Linguistics.

The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance

The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance PDF Author: Robert C. Berwick
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262521109
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Written primarily from the perspective of computational theory, Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance presents a synthesis of some major recent developments in grammatical theory and its application to models of language performance. Its main thesis is that Chomsky's government-binding theory is a good foundation for models of both machine parsing and language learnability.Both authors are at MIT. Robert C. Berwick is Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Amy Weinberg is in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Their book is eleventh in the series Current Studies in Linguistics.

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax PDF Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262260503
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Chomsky proposes a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes recent developments in the descriptive analysis of particular languages into account. Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely form MIT, an approach was developed to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverges in many respects from modern linguistics. Although this approach is connected to the traditional study of languages, it differs enough in its specific conclusions about the structure and in its specific conclusions about the structure of language to warrant a name, "generative grammar." Various deficiencies have been discovered in the first attempts to formulate a theory of transformational generative grammar and in the descriptive analysis of particular languages that motivated these formulations. At the same time, it has become apparent that these formulations can be extended and deepened.The major purpose of this book is to review these developments and to propose a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes them into account. The emphasis in this study is syntax; semantic and phonological aspects of the language structure are discussed only insofar as they bear on syntactic theory.

Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar

Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar PDF Author: David Lebeaux
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027225658
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar attempts to re-think the ideal organization of the grammar, given its need to be learned. The book proposes a fundamental connection between the form of the adult grammar and the sequence of grammars which the child adopts in first language acquisition. Challenging the conventional division between language acquisition and syntax, this influential work constructs a new understanding of phrase structure, bringing syntactic data to bear on phrase structure composition. Two new phrase structure composition operations are proposed, Adjoin-a, which adjoins adjuncts into the structure, and Project-a, which fuses open class and closed class structures. The author also introduces the novel concept of subgrammars, successively larger grammars that take the child from the initial state to the adult grammar. This work will be of interest to those in the areas of syntax, language acquisition, learnability, and cognitive science in general.

The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar

The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar PDF Author: Ian Roberts
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191643688
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
This handbook provides a critical guide to the most central proposition in modern linguistics: the notion, generally known as Universal Grammar, that a universal set of structural principles underlies the grammatical diversity of the world's languages. Part I considers the implications of Universal Grammar for philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, and examines the history of the theory. Part II focuses on linguistic theory, looking at topics such as explanatory adequacy and how phonology and semantics fit into Universal Grammar. Parts III and IV look respectively at the insights derived from UG-inspired research on language acquisition, and at comparative syntax and language typology, while part V considers the evidence for Universal Grammar in phenomena such as creoles, language pathology, and sign language. The book will be a vital reference for linguists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists.

Exploring Linguistic Science

Exploring Linguistic Science PDF Author: Allison Burkette
Publisher:
ISBN: 1108424805
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Introduces students to the scientific study of language, using the basic principles of complexity theory.

Unbounded Dependency Constructions

Unbounded Dependency Constructions PDF Author: Rui P. Chaves
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191087920
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This book is about one of the most intriguing features of human communication systems: the fact that words that go together in meaning can occur arbitrarily far away from each other. In the sentence This is technology that most people think about, but rarely consider the implications of, the word 'technology' is interpreted as if it were simultaneously next to the words 'about' and 'of'. This kind of long-distance dependency has been the subject of intense linguistic and psycholinguistic research for the last half century, and offers a unique insight into the nature of grammatical structures and their interaction with cognition. The constructions in which these unbounded dependencies arise are remarkably difficult to model and come with a rather puzzling array of constraints that have often defied characterization or proper explanation. This work provides a detailed survey of these constructions and the factors responsible for their creation and comprehension, describes new experimental evidence that sheds light on the nature of the phenomenon, and suggests new avenues for future research. The volume will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in the fields of morphosyntax, psycholinguistics, and cognitive science.

The Emergence of Language

The Emergence of Language PDF Author: Brian MacWhinney
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135676925
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
For nearly four centuries, our understanding of human development has been controlled by the debate between nativism and empiricism. Nowhere has the contrast between these apparent alternatives been sharper than in the study of language acquisition. However, as more is learned about the details of language learning, it is found that neither nativism nor empiricism provides guidance about the ways in which complexity arises from the interaction of simpler developmental forces. For example, the child's first guesses about word meanings arise from the interplay between parental guidance, the child's perceptual preferences, and neuronal support for information storage and retrieval. As soon as the shape of the child's lexicon emerges from these more basic forces, an exploration of "emergentism" as a new alternative to nativism and empiricism is ready to begin. This book presents a series of emergentist accounts of language acquisition. Each case shows how a few simple, basic processes give rise to new levels of language complexity. The aspects of language examined here include auditory representations, phonological and articulatory processes, lexical semantics, ambiguity processing, grammaticality judgment, and sentence comprehension. The approaches that are invoked to account formally for emergent patterns include neural network theory, dynamic systems, linguistic functionalism, construction grammar, optimality theory, and statistically-driven learning. The excitement of this work lies both in the discovery of new emergent patterns and in the integration of theoretical frameworks that can formalize the theory of emergentism.

Cognition and Language Growth

Cognition and Language Growth PDF Author: Sascha W. Felix
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311087167X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Language acquisition is a human endeavor par excellence. As children, all human beings learn to understand and speak at least one language: their mother tongue. It is a process that seems to take place without any obvious effort. Second language learning, particularly among adults, causes more difficulty. The purpose of this series is to compile a collection of high-quality monographs on language acquisition. The series serves the needs of everyone who wants to know more about the problem of language acquisition in general and/or about language acquisition in specific contexts.

Studies in the Acquisition of Anaphora

Studies in the Acquisition of Anaphora PDF Author: B. Lust
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400933878
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Today, one fundamental set of issues confronts both the linguistic theory of 'Universal Grammar' and the psychological study of human cognition. These issues concern the question of to what degree and how the human mind is "programmed," presumably biologically, to acquire the complex knowiedge of human language. As discussed in Volume I, anaphora has been critical to this study because, while a critical property of language knowledge, it is largely underdetermined by available evidence. While most previous research projects have generally addressed these issues through either linguistic analyses or psychological analyses of language data, and have concerned themselves with either the role of innateness or the role of experience in language knowledge, this volume, with its predecessor, attempts to combine these approaches; in fact to develop a research paradigm for their joint study. While Volume I emphasized study of the content and nature of the initial state, i. e. , of the language faculty, this second volume emphasizes study of the way in which experience does or does not interact with this language faculty to determine language acquisition. We argue in the introduction that the issues addressed in Volume II are appreciable, if not necessary, com plements to those addressed in Volume I. This is not only because a more comprehensive model of language acquisition requires so, but because valid definition of the content of 'the initial state' may require so.