The Syntagmatic Paradigmatic Model: A distributed instance-based model of sentence processing

The Syntagmatic Paradigmatic (SP) model is a distributed, instance-based account of sentence processing. Built on the Minerva II model of episodic memory (Hintzman 1988), it characterizes sentence processing as the retrieval of sets of associative constraints from long-term memory and the resolution of these constraints in working memory. In common with connectionist approaches, the SP model provides a data-driven account of language learning and does not make strong a priori assumptions concerning the nature of syntactic knowledge. However, the SP model overcomes the limitations of scalability and systematicity that have undermined the generality of neural network models of language phenomena. In this paper, the model is described and key properties are outlined.