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The probabilistic analysis of language acquisition : theoretical, computational, and experimental analysis
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Hsu, Anne S., Chater, Nick and Vitányi, P. M. B. (2011) The probabilistic analysis of language acquisition : theoretical, computational, and experimental analysis. Cognition, Vol.120 (No.3). pp. 380-390. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.02.013 ISSN 0010-0277.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.02.013
Abstract
There is much debate over the degree to which language learning is governed by innate language-specific biases, or acquired through cognition-general principles. Here we examine the probabilistic language acquisition hypothesis on three levels: We outline a novel theoretical result showing that it is possible to learn the exact generative model underlying a wide class of languages, purely from observing samples of the language. We then describe a recently proposed practical framework, which quantifies natural language learnability, allowing specific learnability predictions to be made for the first time. In previous work, this framework was used to make learnability predictions for a wide variety of linguistic constructions, for which learnability has been much debated. Here, we present a new experiment which tests these learnability predictions. We find that our experimental results support the possibility that these linguistic constructions are acquired probabilistically from cognition-general principles.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics Q Science > QA Mathematics Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Language acquisition -- Mathematical models, Language acquisition -- Statistical methods, Bayesian statistical decision theory, Natural language processing (Computer science) | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Cognition | ||||
| Publisher: | Elsevier BV | ||||
| ISSN: | 0010-0277 | ||||
| Official Date: | September 2011 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Vol.120 | ||||
| Number: | No.3 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 380-390 | ||||
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.02.013 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published |
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