CRL TR 8903: Representation and structure in connectionist models

[Jeff Elman]

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CRL Tech Report 8903				August 1989

"Representation and Structure in Connectionist Models"
 
Jeffrey L. Elman
Departments of Cognitive Science and Linguistics
University of California, San Diego

ABSTRACT 

This paper focuses on  the nature of representations in connectionist
models.  It addresses two issues:  (1)  Can connectionist models
develop representations which possess internal structure and which
provide the basis for productive and systematic behavior;  and (2) Can
representations which are fundamentally context-sensitive support
grammatical behavior which appears to be abstract and general?  Results
from two simulations are reported.   The simulations address problems
in the distinction between type and token, the representation of
lexical categories, and the representation of grammatical structure.
The results suggest that connectionist representations can indeed have
such internal structure and exhibit systematic behavior, and that a
mechanism which is sensitive to context is capable of capturing
generalizations of varying degrees  of abstractness.
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