Preface
Overview
Language modularity
Language learnability
Empirical and computational investigation of linguistic hypotheses
The scope of this book
Mapping words to meanings
Learning syntax
Linking syntax to semantics
Computational Models of Language Learning
What to expect from a model
Marr's levels of cognitive modeling
Cognitive plausibility criteria
Modeling frameworks
Symbolic modeling
Connectionist modeling
Probabilistic modeling
Research methods
Available resources
Analysis of language production data
Experimental methods of studying language processing
Summary
Learning Words
Mapping words to meanings
Child developmental patterns
Suggested learning mechanisms
Existing computational models of word learning
Case study: associating phonological forms with concepts
Case study: rule-based cross-situational learning
Case study: probabilistic cross-situational learning
Integrating other information resources
Syntactic structure of the sentence
Social cues
Summary
Putting Words Together
Morphology: word form regularities
Computational models of learning morphology
Case study: learning English past tense
Formation of lexical categories
Computational models of lexical category induction
Evaluation of the induced categories
Learning structural knowledge of language
Nativist accounts of syntax
Formal studies of learnability
Case study: models of P & P
Usage-based accounts of syntax
Case study: distributional representation of syntactic structure
Grammar induction from corpora
Case study: MOSAIC
Summary
FormβMeaning Associations
Acquisition of verb argument structure
Semantic bootstrapping
Construction grammar
Computational models of construction learning
Case study: Chang (2004)
Semantic roles and grammatical functions
The nature of semantic roles
Computational studies of semantic roles
Case study: Alishahi and Stevenson (2010)
Selectional preferences of verbs
Computational models of the induction of selectional preferences
Summary
Final Thoughts
Standard research methods
Learning problems
Bibliography
Author's Biography