Co-evolution of Language and of the Language Acquisition Device

A new account of parameter setting during grammatical acquisition is presented in terms of Generalized Categorial Grammar embedded in a default inheritance hierarchy, providing a natural partial ordering on the setting of parameters. Experiments show that several experimentally effective learners can be defined in this framework. Ew)lutionary simulations suggest that a lea.rner with default initial settings for parameters will emerge, provided that learning is memory limited and the environment of linguistic adaptation contains an appropriate language. 1 Theoretical Background Grmnnmtical acquisition proceeds on the basis of a partial genotypic specifica.tion of (universal) grmnmar (UG) complemented with a learning procedure elmbling the child to complete this specification appropriately. The parameter setting frainework of Chomsky (1981) claims that learning involves fixing the wdues of a finite set of finite-valued parameters to select a single fully-specified grammar from within th...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: ACL
• Authors: Ted Briscoe
• Keywords: ACL 1997, ACL 2007, Default Initial Settings, Generalized Categorial Grammar, Parameters