Special Issue of Cognitive Science on Connectionist Language Processing

[Dr. Morten H. Christiansen]

The members of this list may be interested in the most recent issue of
Cognitive Science which is a Special Issue on connectionist language
processing:

Christiansen, M.H., Chater, N. & Seidenberg, M.S. (Eds.) (1999).
Connectionist models of human language processing: Progress and prospects.
Special issue of Cognitive Science, Vol. 23(4), 415-634.


			     PREFACE


	Connectionist Models of Human Language Processing:
                     Progress and Prospects

                             Editors

     Morten H. Christiansen, Nick Chater & Mark S. Seidenberg 


This Special Issue appraises the progress made so far and the
prospects for future development of connectionist models of natural
language processing. This project is timely - the decade since the
publication of Rumelhart & McClelland's influential PDP volumes has
seen an explosive growth of connectionist modeling of natural
language, ranging from models of early speech perception, to syntax
and to discourse level phenomena. The breadth and variety of this work
is illustrated in the review, which forms the introductory paper in
the volume.

How much has been achieved by this vast research effort? Part I
presents some of the most recent progress by leading connectionist
researchers, in a range of topics of central interest in language
processing. Gaskell & Marslen-Wilson describe recent developments in
connectionist models of speech perception. Plunkett & Juola report on
progress in the highly controversial area of connectionist models of
morphology. Tabor & Tanenhaus describe their work utilizing recurrent
networks to model parsing within a dynamic perspective. Dell, Chang &
Griffin provide accounts of lexical and syntactic aspects of language
production. Plaut outlines recent developments in connectionist models
of reading.

Where Part I brings us to the forefront of current connectionist
modeling of natural language processing, Part II considers the
prospects for future research. Seidenberg and MacDonald argue that
connectionism provides a fundamentally new way of looking at language
processing and acquisition, which challenges traditional viewpoints
derived from linguistics. By contrast, Smolensky attempts to
synthesize lessons learned from both linguistics and connectionist
research, arguing that progress will come from providing an
integration of the two approaches.  Steedman takes on the role as an
"outside" observer, seeking to put connectionist natural language
processing in perspective.

Connectionist modeling has had a vast impact throughout cognitive
science, and has been both most productive and most controversial in
the area of natural language processing and acquisition. This issue
can be used as an overview of the "state of the art" in connectionist
models of natural language processing. But more important, we hope
that it serves also as a contribution to the current research effort
in this area, and as a stimulus to informed debate concerning future
research on human natural language.



                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

(Abstracts can be found at http://siva.usc.edu/~morten/cs.SI-abtracts.html)

Introduction

  Connectionist Natural Language Processing: The State of the Art. 
    Morten H. Christiansen & Nick Chater 


Part I: Progress

  Ambiguity, Competition and Blending in Spoken Word Recognition. 
    M. Gareth Gaskell & William D. Marslen-Wilson 

  A Connectionist Model of English Past Tense and Plural Morphology. 
    Kim Plunkett & Patrick Juola 

  Dynamical Models of Sentence Processing. 
    Whitney Tabor & Michael K. Tanenhaus 

  Connectionist Models of Language Production: Lexical Access and 
  Grammatical Encoding. 
    Gary S. Dell, Franklin Chang & Zenzi M. Griffin 
       
  A Connectionist Approach to Word Reading and Acquired Dyslexia: 
  Extension to Sequential Processing.
    David C. Plaut 


Part II: Prospects

  A Probabilistic Constraints Approach to Language Acquisition and Processing.
    Mark S. Seidenberg & Maryellen C. MacDonald 

  Grammar-based Connectionist Approaches to Language.
    Paul Smolensky 

  Connectionist Sentence Processing in Perspective.
    Mark Steedman 



[Sorry, I can provide no hardcopies - for electronic copies, please
contact the authors directly].


Best regards,
		Morten Christiansen

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Morten H. Christiansen
Assistant Professor	       	   Phone: +1 (618) 453-3547
Department of Psychology      	   Fax:   +1 (618) 453-3563
Southern Illinois University	   Email: morten at siu.edu
Carbondale, IL 62901-6502   	   Office: Life Sciences II, Room 271A
Personal Web Page: http://www.siu.edu/~psycho/faculty/mhc.html
Lab Web Site: http://www.siu.edu/~morten/csl
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