A Computational Model Of First Language Acquisition

A Computational Model Of First Language Acquisition
Author: Nobuo Satake
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 211
Release: 1990-01-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9814507040

This book describes a study on the question of what sort of innate knowledge it is that enables children to acquire a first language. The author, using a computational approach, builds a model, named BUD (Bring Up a Daughter), on the basis of the data linguists and psychologists have collected.BUD is based on the empirists, view of first language acquisition (as opposed to that of the nativists'), that children make a number of rules in acquiring a first language and that over generalizations can be found in the acquisition of every aspect of a language. Thus, BUD has no built-in procedure by which it computes the structures of a language. A detailed description of the BUD model and its workings answers the question on which the study is based.

Computational Modeling of Human Language Acquisition

Computational Modeling of Human Language Acquisition
Author: Afra Alishahi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 94
Release: 2022-06-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3031021401

Human language acquisition has been studied for centuries, but using computational modeling for such studies is a relatively recent trend. However, computational approaches to language learning have become increasingly popular, mainly due to advances in developing machine learning techniques, and the availability of vast collections of experimental data on child language learning and child-adult interaction. Many of the existing computational models attempt to study the complex task of learning a language under cognitive plausibility criteria (such as memory and processing limitations that humans face), and to explain the developmental stages observed in children. By simulating the process of child language learning, computational models can show us which linguistic representations are learnable from the input that children have access to, and which mechanisms yield the same patterns of behaviour that children exhibit during this process. In doing so, computational modeling provides insight into the plausible mechanisms involved in human language acquisition, and inspires the development of better language models and techniques. This book provides an overview of the main research questions in the field of human language acquisition. It reviews the most commonly used computational frameworks, methodologies and resources for modeling child language learning, and the evaluation techniques used for assessing these computational models. The book is aimed at cognitive scientists who want to become familiar with the available computational methods for investigating problems related to human language acquisition, as well as computational linguists who are interested in applying their skills to the study of child language acquisition. Different aspects of language learning are discussed in separate chapters, including the acquisition of the individual words, the general regularities which govern word and sentence form, and the associations between form and meaning. For each of these aspects, the challenges of the task are discussed and the relevant empirical findings on children are summarized. Furthermore, the existing computational models that attempt to simulate the task under study are reviewed, and a number of case studies are presented. Table of Contents: Overview / Computational Models of Language Learning / Learning Words / Putting Words Together / Form--Meaning Associations / Final Thoughts

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Author: Paul Fletcher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 632
Release: 1986-05-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521277808

An invaluable resource for students and professionals alike with an interest in child language acquisition.

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Author: Susan Foster-Cohen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2009-07-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 023024078X

This book provides a snapshot of the field of language acquisition at the beginning of the 21st Century. It represents the multiplicity of approaches that characterize the field and provides a review of current topics and debates, as well as addressing some of the connections between sub-fields and possible future directions for research.

Computational Approaches to Language Acquisition

Computational Approaches to Language Acquisition
Author: Michael R. Brent
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1997
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780262522298

The past fifteen years have seen great changes in the field of language acquisition. New experimental methods have yielded insights into the linguistic knowledge of ever younger children, and interest has grown in the phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects of the lexicon. Computational investigations of language acquisition have also changed, reflecting, among other things, the profound shift in the field of natural language processing from hand-crafted grammars to grammars that are learned automatically from samples of naturally occurring language.Each of the four research papers in this book takes a novel formal approach to a particular problem in language acquisition. In the first paper, J. M. Siskind looks at developmentally inspired models of word learning. In the second, M. R. Brent and T. A. Cartwright look at how children could discover the sounds of words, given that word boundaries are not marked by any acoustic analog of the spaces between written words. In the third, P. Resnik measures the association between verbs and the semantic categories of their arguments that children likely use as clues to verb meanings. Finally, P. Niyogi and R. C. Berwick address the setting of syntactic parameters such as headedness--for example, whether the direct object comes before or after the verb.

How the Brain Got Language

How the Brain Got Language
Author: Michael A. Arbib
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2012-04-11
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199896690

Unlike any other species, humans can learn and use language. This book explains how the brain evolved to make language possible, through what Michael Arbib calls the Mirror System Hypothesis. Because of mirror neurons, monkeys, chimps, and humans can learn by imitation, but only "complex imitation," which humans exhibit, is powerful enough to support the breakthrough to language. This theory provides a path from the openness of manual gesture, which we share with nonhuman primates, through the complex imitation of manual skills, pantomime, protosign (communication based on conventionalized manual gestures), and finally to protospeech. The theory explains why we humans are as capable of learning sign languages as we are of learning to speak. This fascinating book shows how cultural evolution took over from biological evolution for the transition from protolanguage to fully fledged languages. The author explains how the brain mechanisms that made the original emergence of languages possible, perhaps 100,000 years ago, are still operative today in the way children acquire language, in the way that new sign languages have emerged in recent decades, and in the historical processes of language change on a time scale from decades to centuries. Though the subject is complex, this book is highly readable, providing all the necessary background in primatology, neuroscience, and linguistics to make the book accessible to a general audience.

Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition

Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition
Author: Aline Villavicencio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3642318630

Questions related to language acquisition have been of interest for many centuries, as children seem to acquire a sophisticated capacity for processing language with apparent ease, in the face of ambiguity, noise and uncertainty. However, with recent advances in technology and cognitive-related research it is now possible to conduct large-scale computational investigations of these issues The book discusses some of the latest theoretical and practical developments in the areas involved, including computational models for language tasks, tools and resources that help to approximate the linguistic environment available to children during acquisition, and discussions of challenging aspects of language that children have to master. This is a much-needed collection that provides a cross-section of recent multidisciplinary research on the computational modeling of language acquisition. It is targeted at anyone interested in the relevance of computational techniques for understanding language acquisition. Readers of this book will be introduced to some of the latest approaches to these tasks including: * Models of acquisition of various types of linguistic information (from words to syntax and semantics) and their relevance to research on human language acquisition * Analysis of linguistic and contextual factors that influence acquisition * Resources and tools for investigating these tasks Each chapter is presented in a self-contained manner, providing a detailed description of the relevant aspects related to research on language acquisition, and includes illustrations and tables to complement these in-depth discussions. Though there are no formal prerequisites, some familiarity with the basic concepts of human and computational language acquisition is beneficial.

Child Language

Child Language
Author: Michelle Aldridge
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1996
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781853593161

Comprises 17 papers presented at the Child Language Seminar, Bangor 1994, with contributions in areas as diverse as bilingual development, phonological disorders, sign language development, and the language of Down's syndrome children.

Mechanisms of Language Acquisition

Mechanisms of Language Acquisition
Author: Brian MacWhinney
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2014-02-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317757408

First published in 1987. Three decades of intensive study of language development have led to an enormous accumulation of descriptive data. But there is still no over-arching theory of language development that can make orderly sense of this huge stockpile of observations. Grand structuralist theories such as those of Chomsky, Jakobson, and Piaget have kept researchers asking the right questions, but they seldom allow us to make detailed experimental predictions or to formulate detailed accounts. The papers collected in this volume attempt to address this gap between data and theory by formulating a series of mechanistic accounts of the acquisition of language.