Induction problems, indirect positive evidence, and Universal Grammar: Anaphoric one revisited
نویسنده
چکیده
One motivation for Universal Grammar (UG) comes from the existence of induction problems in language acquisition, and their solutions. Previous induction problem characterizations have typically not recognized that INDIRECT POSITIVE evidence may be both available and useful, in addition to other types of evidence. As a case study, we investigate whether a probabilistic learner utilizing indirect positive evidence can solve the induction problem traditionally associated with English anaphoric one. Though full adult knowledge of the representation and interpretation of anaphoric one is extensive, recent experimental work with young children has provided an empirical basis to focus on that accords with the original characterization of this induction problem. In particular, given a specific anaphoric one context, an adult interpretation appears to be generated by toddlers, based on their preferential looking behavior. We find that our modeled learner, given realistic input, can reproduce this toddler anaphoric one behavior, which was thought to indicate the induction problem had been solved by this age. However, we find this behavior can be generated even when a non-adult representation underlies it. This suggests that the previous characterization of this anaphoric one induction problem may need revision, as the link between observable behavior and underlying knowledge is not straightforward. Nonetheless, at least some aspects of the adult representation are in place, and the question remains as to how even that level of knowledge is attained so early in development. We discuss the nature of the learning biases that can generate child behavior, and how this impacts the larger debate about the motivation for UG and its contents.
منابع مشابه
How Far Can Indirect Evidence Take Us? Anaphoric One Revisited
A controversial claim in linguistics is that children face an induction problem, which is often used to motivate the need for Universal Grammar. English anaphoric one has been argued to present this kind of induction problem. While the original solution was that children have innate domain-specific knowledge about the structure of language, more recent studies have suggested alternative solutio...
متن کاملIndirect Evidence and the Poverty of the Stimulus: The Case of Anaphoric One
It is widely held that children's linguistic input underdetermines the correct grammar, and that language learning must therefore be guided by innate linguistic constraints. Here, we show that a Bayesian model can learn a standard poverty-of-stimulus example, anaphoric one, from realistic input by relying on indirect evidence, without a linguistic constraint assumed to be necessary. Our demonst...
متن کاملThe role of indirect positive evidence in syntactic acquisition: A look at anaphoric one SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
متن کامل
The role of indirect positive evidence in syntactic acquisition: A look at anaphoric one
Language learners are often faced with a scenario where the data allow multiple generalizations, even though only one is actually correct. One promising solution to this problem is that children are equipped with helpful learning strategies that guide the types of generalizations made from the data. Two successful approaches in recent work for identifying these strategies have involved (i) expa...
متن کاملیک مدل بیزی برای استخراج باناظر گرامر زبان طبیعی
In this paper, we show that the problem of grammar induction could be modeled as a combination of several model selection problems. We use the infinite generalization of a Bayesian model of cognition to solve each model selection problem in our grammar induction model. This Bayesian model is capable of solving model selection problems, consistent with human cognition. We also show that using th...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2013