Language Acquisition and Learnability

✍ Scribed by Stefano Bertolo (Editor)

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 257
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Language Acquisition and Learnability is an accessible introduction to learnability theory and its interactions with linguistic theories. Working within the Principles and Parameters framework, the book surveys general concepts from formal learning theory and complexity theory, together with important findings from developmental psycholinguistics, historical linguistics and language processing. Fully integrated, and complete with a large number of exercises to test readers on their understanding of the material, this book will become essential reading for students and researchers in linguistic theory.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Abstract......Page 3
Title Page......Page 5
Contents......Page 7
Contributors......Page 8
Preface......Page 9
1 A brief overview of learnability......Page 11
1.1.1 The end state of language learning......Page 12
1.1.2 Available hypotheses......Page 13
1.1.4 Learners......Page 14
1.1.5 Criteria of success......Page 15
1.1.5.1 Identification in the limit......Page 16
1.1.5.3 PAC learning......Page 18
1.2 Moving away from identification by enumeration......Page 20
1.3 A formal model of parameter spaces......Page 21
Notes......Page 24
2.1 Introduction......Page 25
2.2 The child's linguistic environment......Page 27
2.2.1 Negative evidence......Page 28
2.2.2 Complexity......Page 32
2.2.3 Ordered data......Page 34
2.3 Subset parameters......Page 36
2.3.1 The Subset Principle......Page 37
2.3.2 The Independence Principle......Page 38
2.3.3 The empirical status of the Subset Problem: Binding Theory......Page 39
2.3.4 Extending the account......Page 46
2.3.5 Children's acquisition of anaphors and pronouns......Page 51
2.3.6 The status and scope of the Subset Principle......Page 54
2.4 Non-subset parameters......Page 60
2.4.1 Applications of the TLA......Page 62
2.4.2 Dealing with local maxima......Page 68
2.4.3 Further developments......Page 70
2.4.4 Genetic algorithms and accounting for historical change......Page 75
Notes......Page 84
3.1 Introduction and general hypotheses......Page 91
3.2.1 General considerations......Page 94
3.2.2 The form of parameters......Page 104
3.2.3 Markedness......Page 113
3.3.1 The loss of verb movement in English......Page 117
3.3.2 The development of the Romance future and conditional tenses......Page 124
3.3.3 Word-order change......Page 130
Notes......Page 133
4.1 Introduction and motivation......Page 136
4.2 The simplicity of the input to the learner......Page 139
4.3.1 Probability and information theory......Page 147
4.3.2 The structure of descriptions......Page 156
4.3.3 Machines, programs and descriptions......Page 158
4.3.4 Data compression......Page 163
4.3.5 Putting it together......Page 169
4.3.6 The complexity of descriptions......Page 171
Notes......Page 180
5.1 Introduction......Page 182
5.2 Triggering......Page 183
5.3 Using the parser to identify triggers......Page 186
5.4 The Triggering Learning Algorithm......Page 188
5.5 Performance of a TLA-like algorithm......Page 191
5.5.1 TLA- = TLA without SVC......Page 192
5.5.2 Summary of TLA- performance......Page 197
5.6 Adding in the SVC......Page 200
5.6.1 Evaluation of the TLA......Page 204
5.7 The Parametric Principle......Page 205
5.8 Structural triggers......Page 209
5.9.1 Number of inputs to convergence for STL......Page 216
5.9.2 General assessment of the STL......Page 222
5.10 Implications for linguistic research......Page 225
5.11.2 Calculations for the STL-: expected sample size to convergence......Page 233
Notes......Page 236
References......Page 244
Index......Page 254