The Learnability of Abstract Syntactic Principles

Autor/inn/en	Perfors, Amy; Tenenbaum, Joshua B.; Regier, Terry
Titel	The Learnability of Abstract Syntactic Principles
Quelle	In: Cognition, 118 (2011) 3, S.306-338 (33 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0277
DOI	10.1016/j.cognition.2010.11.001
Schlagwörter	Phrase Structure; Language Acquisition; Children; Models; Grammar; Bayesian Statistics; Word Order; Faculty + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Phrasenstruktur; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Child; Kind; Kinder; Analogiemodell; Grammatik; Wortfolge; Academic Staff; Lehrkörper
Abstract	Children acquiring language infer the correct form of syntactic constructions for which they appear to have little or no direct evidence, avoiding simple but incorrect generalizations that would be consistent with the data they receive. These generalizations must be guided by some inductive bias--some abstract knowledge--that leads them to prefer the correct hypotheses even in the absence of directly supporting evidence. What form do these inductive constraints take? It is often argued or assumed that they reflect innately specified knowledge of language. A classic example of such an argument moves from the phenomenon of auxiliary fronting in English interrogatives to the conclusion that children must innately know that syntactic rules are defined over hierarchical phrase structures rather than linear sequences of words (e.g., [Chomsky, 1965], [Chomsky, 1971], [Chomsky, 1980] and [Crain and Nakayama, 1987]). Here we use a Bayesian framework for grammar induction to address a version of this argument and show that, given typical child-directed speech and certain innate domain-general capacities, an ideal learner could recognize the hierarchical phrase structure of language without having this knowledge innately specified as part of the language faculty. We discuss the implications of this analysis for accounts of human language acquisition. (Contains 9 tables and 8 figures.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Elsevier. 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32887-4800. Tel: 877-839-7126; Tel: 407-345-4020; Fax: 407-363-1354; e-mail: usjcs@elsevier.com; Web site: http://www.elsevier.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10