Towards a rationalist theory of language acquisition

Edward Stabler
The 12th International Conference on Grammatical Inference, PMLR 34:21-32, 2014.

Abstract

Recent computational, mathematical work on learnability extends to classes of languages that plausibly include the human languages, but there is nevertheless a gulf between this work and linguistic theory. The languages of the two fields seem almost completely disjoint and incommensurable. This paper shows that this has happened, at least in part, because the recent advances in learnability have been misdescribed in two important respects. First, they have been described as resting on ‘empiricist’ conceptions of language, when actually, in fundamental respects that are made precise here, they are equally compatible with the ‘rationalist’, ‘nativist’ traditions in linguistic theory. Second, the recent mathematical proposals have sometimes been presented as if they not only advance but complete the account of human language acquisition, taking the rather dramatic difference between what current mathematical models can achieve and what current linguistic theories tell us as an indication that current linguistic theories are quite generally mistaken. This paper compares the two perspectives and takes some first steps toward a unified theory, aiming to identify some common ground where ‘rationalist’ linguistic hypotheses could directly address weaknesses in the current mathematical proposals.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v34-stabler14a, title = {Towards a rationalist theory of language acquisition}, author = {Stabler, Edward}, booktitle = {The 12th International Conference on Grammatical Inference}, pages = {21--32}, year = {2014}, editor = {Clark, Alexander and Kanazawa, Makoto and Yoshinaka, Ryo}, volume = {34}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, address = {Kyoto, Japan}, month = {17--19 Sep}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {http://proceedings.mlr.press/v34/stabler14a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v34/stabler14a.html}, abstract = {Recent computational, mathematical work on learnability extends to classes of languages that plausibly include the human languages, but there is nevertheless a gulf between this work and linguistic theory. The languages of the two fields seem almost completely disjoint and incommensurable. This paper shows that this has happened, at least in part, because the recent advances in learnability have been misdescribed in two important respects. First, they have been described as resting on ‘empiricist’ conceptions of language, when actually, in fundamental respects that are made precise here, they are equally compatible with the ‘rationalist’, ‘nativist’ traditions in linguistic theory. Second, the recent mathematical proposals have sometimes been presented as if they not only advance but complete the account of human language acquisition, taking the rather dramatic difference between what current mathematical models can achieve and what current linguistic theories tell us as an indication that current linguistic theories are quite generally mistaken. This paper compares the two perspectives and takes some first steps toward a unified theory, aiming to identify some common ground where ‘rationalist’ linguistic hypotheses could directly address weaknesses in the current mathematical proposals.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Towards a rationalist theory of language acquisition %A Edward Stabler %B The 12th International Conference on Grammatical Inference %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2014 %E Alexander Clark %E Makoto Kanazawa %E Ryo Yoshinaka %F pmlr-v34-stabler14a %I PMLR %P 21--32 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v34/stabler14a.html %V 34 %X Recent computational, mathematical work on learnability extends to classes of languages that plausibly include the human languages, but there is nevertheless a gulf between this work and linguistic theory. The languages of the two fields seem almost completely disjoint and incommensurable. This paper shows that this has happened, at least in part, because the recent advances in learnability have been misdescribed in two important respects. First, they have been described as resting on ‘empiricist’ conceptions of language, when actually, in fundamental respects that are made precise here, they are equally compatible with the ‘rationalist’, ‘nativist’ traditions in linguistic theory. Second, the recent mathematical proposals have sometimes been presented as if they not only advance but complete the account of human language acquisition, taking the rather dramatic difference between what current mathematical models can achieve and what current linguistic theories tell us as an indication that current linguistic theories are quite generally mistaken. This paper compares the two perspectives and takes some first steps toward a unified theory, aiming to identify some common ground where ‘rationalist’ linguistic hypotheses could directly address weaknesses in the current mathematical proposals.
RIS
TY - CPAPER TI - Towards a rationalist theory of language acquisition AU - Edward Stabler BT - The 12th International Conference on Grammatical Inference DA - 2014/08/30 ED - Alexander Clark ED - Makoto Kanazawa ED - Ryo Yoshinaka ID - pmlr-v34-stabler14a PB - PMLR DP - Proceedings of Machine Learning Research VL - 34 SP - 21 EP - 32 L1 - http://proceedings.mlr.press/v34/stabler14a.pdf UR - https://proceedings.mlr.press/v34/stabler14a.html AB - Recent computational, mathematical work on learnability extends to classes of languages that plausibly include the human languages, but there is nevertheless a gulf between this work and linguistic theory. The languages of the two fields seem almost completely disjoint and incommensurable. This paper shows that this has happened, at least in part, because the recent advances in learnability have been misdescribed in two important respects. First, they have been described as resting on ‘empiricist’ conceptions of language, when actually, in fundamental respects that are made precise here, they are equally compatible with the ‘rationalist’, ‘nativist’ traditions in linguistic theory. Second, the recent mathematical proposals have sometimes been presented as if they not only advance but complete the account of human language acquisition, taking the rather dramatic difference between what current mathematical models can achieve and what current linguistic theories tell us as an indication that current linguistic theories are quite generally mistaken. This paper compares the two perspectives and takes some first steps toward a unified theory, aiming to identify some common ground where ‘rationalist’ linguistic hypotheses could directly address weaknesses in the current mathematical proposals. ER -
APA
Stabler, E.. (2014). Towards a rationalist theory of language acquisition. The 12th International Conference on Grammatical Inference, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 34:21-32 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v34/stabler14a.html.

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