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Higher order inference in verb argument structure acquisition

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Wonnacott, Elizabeth, Perfors, Amy and Tenenbaum, Joshua B. (2008) Higher order inference in verb argument structure acquisition. In: 14th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing, Cambridge, UK, 4-6 Sep 2008

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Official URL: http://csl.psychol.cam.ac.uk/amlap/index.html

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Abstract

Successful language learning combines generalization and
the acquisition of lexical constraints. The conflict is particularly clear for verb argument structures, which may
generalize to new verbs (John gorped the ball to Bill ->John gorped Bill the ball), yet resist generalization with certain lexical items (John carried the ball to Bill -> *John carried Bill the ball). The resulting learnability “paradox” (Baker 1979) has received great attention in the acquisition literature.
Wonnacott, Newport & Tanenhaus 2008 demonstrated that adult learners acquire both general and verb-specific
patterns when acquiring an artificial language with two
competing argument structures, and that these same
constraints are reflected in real time processing. The current work follows up and extends this program of research in two new experiments. We demonstrate that the results are consistent with a hierarchical Bayesian model, originally developed by Kemp, Perfors & Tenebaum (2007) to capture the emergence of feature biases in word learning.

Item Type: Conference Item (Poster)
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Faculty of Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Language acquisition, Inference, Structural linguistics, Grammar, Comparative and general -- Verb, Psycholinguistics
Official Date: 2008
Dates:
DateEvent
2008UNSPECIFIED
Date of first compliant deposit: 1 August 2016
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Conference Paper Type: Poster
Title of Event: 14th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing
Type of Event: Conference
Location of Event: Cambridge, UK
Date(s) of Event: 4-6 Sep 2008

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