Toward an ethically committed linguistics

Dynamical systems and cognitive linguistics: toward an active morphodynamical semantics

We propose a novel dynamical system approach to cognitive linguistics based on cellular automata and spiking neural networks. How can the same relationship 'in' apply to containers as different as 'box', 'tree' or 'bowl'? Our objective is to categorize the infinite diversity of schematic visual scenes into a small set of grammatical elements and elucidate the topology of language. Gestalt-inspi...

Toward machines that behave ethically better than humans do

With the increasing dependence on autonomous operating agents and robots the need for ethical machine behavior rises. This paper presents a moral reasoner that combines connectionism, utilitarianism and ethical theory about moral duties. The moral decision-making matches the analysis of expert ethicists in the health domain. This may be useful in many applications, especially where machines int...

Toward a Theory of Computational Linguistics

Mechanisms underlying an ability to behave ethically.

Cognitive neuroscientists have anticipated the union of neural and behavioral science with ethics (Gazzaniga 2005). The identification of an ethical rule--the dictum that we should treat others in the manner in which we would like to be treated--apparently widespread among human societies suggests a dependence on fundamental human brain mechanisms. Now, studies of neural and molecular mechanism...

Toward Integrating Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Language Processing

We present a system to comprehend natural language that combines cognitive linguistics with known properties of human language processing. It is built on Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG) and the Soar cognitive architecture. Its core is a novel grounded semantic parser. Experiments show the system produces actionable meanings and fulfills ten cognitive criteria we set out.