Dynamical Grammar Minimalism, Acquisition,

Dynamical Grammar explores the consequences for language acquisition, language evolution, and linguistic theory of taking the underlying architecture of the language faculty to be that of a complex adaptive dynamical system. It contains the first results of a new and complex model of language acquisition which the authors have developed to measure how far language input is reflected in language output and thereby get a better idea of just how far the human language faculty is hard-wired.

Peter W. Culicover is currently the Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Director of the Center for Cognitive Science at the Ohio State University. His current research is concerned with the architecture of the language faculty and its role in the dynamical aspects of language. Andrzej Nowak is Associate Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. His research interests are modeling and computer simulation of social processes.

Preface

xii

Acknowledgements

xv

List of Figures

xvii

List of Tables

xxi

Part I: Foundations

1. The Dynamical Perspective

3

(20)

1.1. The problem

3

(1)

1.2. The science of language

4

(2)

1.3. Unification, modularity, and complexity

6

(6)

1.3.1. The elegant universe

6

(2)

1.3.2. Language is a biological system

8

(2)

1.3.3. Concrete Minimalism

10

(2)

1.4. Static and dynamical

12

(3)

1.5. Growth of the system

15

(5)

1.5.1. Structuring linguistic space: categories and flows

15

(3)

1.5.2. Adaptive mechanisms

18

(2)

1.6. Overview of the book

20

(3)

2. Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory

23

(26)

2.1. Universals

23

(2)

2.2. Continuity

25

(5)

2.3. Parameter setting

30

(10)

2.3.1. Outline of the theory

30

(1)

2.3.2. Problems with parameter setting

31

(22)

2.3.2.1. Parameters

31

(2)

2.3.2.2. Parsing and triggers

33

(5)

2.3.2.3. Mistakes, idioms, and subregularities

38

(2)

2.4. How is language special?

40

(2)

2.5. The course of language acquisition

42

(7)

Part II: Simulations

3. The Computational Simulation of Language Acquisition: Aqui

49

(52)

3.1. Computational simulation

50

(3)

3.2. Statistical approaches to modelling language acquisition

53

(15)

3.2.1. Introduction

53

(2)

3.2.2. What distributional approaches can and cannot prove

55

(3)

3.2.3. Segmentation and and categorization

58

(10)

3.2.3.1. Word segmentation

58

(2)

3.2.3.2. Morphology

60

(1)

3.2.3.3. Speech recognition. Markov models

61

(1)

3.2.3.4. Distinguishing word classes

62

(3)

3.2.3.5. Finding syntactic structure

65

(3)

3.3. Aqui and Clagen

68

(31)

3.3.1. Preliminaries

69

(2)

3.3.2. Aqui's performance

71

(12)

3.3.2.1. Input

71

(1)

3.3.2.2. Performance on texts

72

(1)

3.3.2.2.1. Performance on symmetrical text

72

(1)

3.3.2.2.2. Performance on asymmetrical text

73

(3)

3.3.2.3. Natural text

76

(1)

3.3.2.4. Phrases

77

(5)

3.3.2.5. Summary

82

(1)

3.3.3. Clagen

83

(25)

3.3.3.1. Data set information

83

(1)

3.3.3.2. Description of the algorithm

84

(3)

3.3.3.3. Qualitative analysis

87

(1)

3.3.3.4. Quantitative analysis

88

(11)

3.4. Summary

99

(2)

4. Computational Simulation of Language Acquisition: CAMiLLe

101

(28)

4.1. Capacities of CAMiLLe

103

(1)

4.2. Representation in CAMiLLe

104

(4)

4.3. Rule formulation

108

(3)

4.3.1. Templates

108

(2)

4.3.2. Fuzzy rules

110

(1)

4.3.3. Single difference rules

110

(1)

4.4. Correspondences

111

(7)

4.4.1. Coupling trajectories

111

(1)

4.4.2. Generalization

112

(2)

4.4.3. Larger categories

114

(4)

4.5. Parsing

118

(7)

4.5.1. Reduction to the head

118

(2)

4.5.2. Sentences of 0,1, and higher order

120

(2)

4.5.3. Representing syntactic structure

122

(8)

4.5.3.1. Phrase structure

122

(2)

4.5.3.2. Transformations

124

(1)

4.6. Family resemblances

125

(3)

4.7. Summary

128

(1)

5. Experiments With CAMiLLe

129

(65)

5.1. Lexicon

130

(24)

5.1.1. Categorizing nouns

130

(7)

5.1.1.1. Identifying and categorizing nouns

130

(5)

5.1.1.2. Compound nouns

135

(2)

5.1.2. Categorizing verbs

137

(4)

5.1.2.1. Verb #1

137

(1)

5.1.2.2. Verb #2

138

(3)

5.1.2.3. Verb #3

141

(1)

5.1.3. Verbal inflection

141

(4)

5.1.4. Synonymy, idiom, and ambiguity

145

(4)

5.1.4.1. Synonymy

145

(1)

5.1.4.2. Simple ambiguities

146

(2)

5.1.4.3. Idioms

148

(1)

5.1.5. Dummy semantics

149

(5)

5.2. Structure

154

(15)

5.2.1. DP Structure

154

(5)

5.2.1.1. Determiners

154

(2)

5.2.1.2. Adjectives

156

(1)

5.2.1.3. Pre- and post-nominal adjectives

157

(2)

5.2.2. Argument structure

159

(5)

5.2.3. Parsing

164

(5)

5.3. Word order

169

(19)

5.3.1. Word order correlates of argument structure

169

(3)

5.3.2. Generalizations of correspondences

172

(3)

5.3.3. Scrambling

175

(2)

5.3.4. Inversion

177

(8)

5.3.4.1. Subject auxiliary inversion

178

(5)

5.3.4.2. V-to-C inversion

183

(2)

5.3.5. Null arguments

185

(1)

5.3.6. Wh-movement

186

(2)

5.4. Extending CAMiLLe

188

(2)

5.5. Preconditions for language acquisition by CAMiLLe

190

(4)

6. Language Change

194

(47)

6.1. Language change and language variation in a dynamical system

194

(3)

6.2. The simulation of change

197

(27)

6.2.1. The model

198

(3)

6.2.2. Gaps

201

(12)

6.2.2.1. How gaps arise

201

(4)

6.2.2.2. Simulation parameters

205

(2)

6.2.2.3. A case study: West Germanic verb clusters

207

(6)

6.2.3. Implicational universals

213

(4)

6.2.4. Contact and Creoles

217

(7)

6.3. Extending the model

224

(17)

6.3.1. Bias

224

(4)

6.3.2. Variation across lexical populations

228

(4)

6.3.3. Computational complexity

232

(9)

Part III: Grammar

7. Concrete Minimalism

241

(65)

7.1. Capturing knowledge of language in a dynamical system: the design features of language

242

(21)

7.1.1. Levels of representation in a dynamical system

242

(3)

7.1.2. Trajectories

245

(5)

7.1.2.1. Representing sequences in a dynamical system

245

(2)

7.1.2.2. Embodying structure in a dynamical system

247

(3)

7.1.3. Lexical categories

250

(2)

7.1.4. Phrasal categories

252

(8)

7.1.4.1. Endocentricity

252

(6)

7.1.4.2. Exocentricity

258

(1)

7.1.4.3. Recursion

259

(1)

7.1.5. Movement

260

(3)

7.1.5.1. Multiple dependency

260

(2)

7.1.5.2. Leftward movement

262

(1)

7.1.6. Summary

263

(1)

7.2. Head-complement order

263

(14)

7.2.1. Superficial and abstract ordering

264

(4)

7.2.2. Explicit linear ordering

268

(5)

7.2.3. Additional empirical considerations

273

(4)

7.3. V raising to I

277

(9)

7.4. V2 and Inversion

286

(4)

7.5. A linear grammar for verbs

290

(4)

7.6. Null arguments

294

(2)

7.7. Wh-movement

296

(6)

7.8. Scrambling

302

(2)

7.9. Summary and conclusions

304

(2)

References

306

(15)

Index

321

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Dynamical Grammar Minimalism, Acquisition, and Change

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials