Paper: grammaticality in connectionist nets

[Mark Seidenberg]

A preprint of the following paper is available at

        http://siva.usc.edu/coglab/papers.html

The Emergence of Grammaticality in Connectionist Networks

Joseph Allen
Mark S. Seidenberg

University of Southern California

To appear in B. MacWhinney (Ed.), The emergence of language.
        Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

In generative linguistics, knowing a language is equated with knowing a
grammar. It is sometimes suggested that connectionist networks can provide
an alternative account of linguistic knowledge, one that does not
incorporate standard notions of grammar.  Any such alternative account owes
an explanation for how people can distinguish grammatical sentences from
ungrammatical ones. We describe some experiments with an attractor network
that processed 5-8 word sentences, mapping from form to meaning
(comprehension) and from meaning to form (production). The model was
trained on 10 types of sentences used in a classic study of aphasic
language by Linebarger, Schwartz & Saffran (1983). The network performed
qualitatively differently on novel grammatical vs. ungrammatical sentences
(e.g., "He came to my town" vs. "He came my town").  The model was also
tested on sentences analogous to Chomsky's famous "Colorless green ideas
sleep furiously,"  which patterned with other grammatical sentences. We
also examined the model's performance under damage and found that, like
Linebarger et al.'s patients, the model could still distinguish between
several kinds of grammatical and ungrammatical sentences even though its
capacity to comprehend and produce these utterances was impaired.

Although the model's coverage of English grammar is limited, it illustrates
how the distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences can be
realized in a network that does not incorporate a grammar.  The model
provides a basis for understanding how people make grammaticality judgments
and explains the dissociation between the abilities to use language and
make grammaticality judgments seen in some aphasic patients.


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Mark S. Seidenberg
Neuroscience Program
University of Southern California
3614 Watt Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520

Phone:  213-740-9174
Fax: 213-740-5687

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~seidenb
http://siva.usc.edu/coglab
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