A Connectionist Simulation of the Empirical Acquisition of Grammatical Relations

Abstract. This paper proposes an account of the acquisition of grammatical relations using the basic concepts of connectionism and a construction-based theory of grammar. Many previous accounts of first-language acquisition assume that grammatical relations (e.g., the grammatical subject and object of a sentence) and linking rules are universal and innate; this is necessary to provide a first set of assumptions in the target language to allow deductive processes to test hypotheses and/or set parameters. In contrast to this approach, we propose that grammatical relations emerge rather late in the language-learning process. Our theoretical proposal is based on two observations. First, early production of childhood speech is formulaic and becomes systematic in a progressive fashion. Second, grammatical relations themselves are family-resemblance categories that cannot be described by a single parameter. This leads to the notion that grammatical relations are learned in a bottom up fashion...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: HYBRID
• Authors: William C. Morris, Garrison W. Cottrell, Jeffrey L. Elman
• Keywords: Control Systems, First-language Acquisition Assume, Grammatical Relations, Grammatical Subject, HYBRID 1998