Thurs (1/12): Steven Pinker on Language Models

[Mark Gluck]

            Stanford University Interdisciplinary Colloquium Series:
                   Adaptive Networks and their Applications

                        Jan. 12th (Thursday, 3:30pm):
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STEVEN PINKER                                                  CONNECTIONISM AND
Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences             THE FACTS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  email: steve at psyche.mit.edu               (with commentary by David Rumelhart)
     
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                               Abstract
     
                                        
     Connectionist modeling holds the promise of making important
     contributions to our understanding of human language. For example,
     such models can explore the role of parallel processing, constraint
     satisfaction, neurologically realistic architectures, and efficient
     pattern-matching in linguistic processes.
     
     However, the current connectionist program of language modeling seems
     to be motivated by a different set of goals: reviving classical
     associationism, elminating levels of linguistic representation, and
     maximizing the role of top-down, knowledge-driven processing.
     
     I present evidence (developed in collaboration with Alan Prince) that
     these goals are ill-advised, because the empirical assumptions they
     make about human language are simply false.  Specifically, evidence
     from adults' and children's abilities with morphology, semantics, and
     syntax suggests that people possess formal linguistic rules and
     autonomous linguistic representations, which are not based on the
     statistical correlations among microfeatures that current
     connectionist models rely on so heavily.
     
     Moreover, I suggest that treating the existence of
     mentally-represented rules and representations as an empirical
     question will lead to greater progress than rejecting them on a priori
     methodological grounds. The data suggest that some linguistic
     processes are saliently rule-like, and call for a suitable
     symbol-processing architecture, whereas others are associative, and
     can be insightfully modeled using connectionist mechanisms. Thus
     taking the facts of human language seriously can lead to an
     interesting rapprochement between standard psycholinguistics and
     connectionist modeling.
     
     
                          Additional Information
                          ----------------------

Location: Room 380-380F, which can be reached through the lower level
       between the Psychology and Mathematical Sciences buildings. 
Technical Level: These talks will be technically oriented and are intended 
       for persons actively working in related areas. They are not intended
       for the newcomer seeking general introductory material. 
Mailing lists: To be added to the network mailing list, netmail to
       netlist at psych.stanford.edu. For additional information, or contact
       Mark Gluck (gluck at psych.stanford.edu).
     
  Co-Sponsored by: Departments of Electrical Engineering (B. Widrow) and
       Psychology (D. Rumelhart, M. Pavel, M. Gluck), Stanford Univ.