dlm@RESEARCH.ATT.COM (07/18/88)
From: dlm@research.att.com
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 88 10:54 EDT
>From: allegra!dlm (D.L.McGuinness)
To: arpa!mc.lcs.mit.edu!AIList
Subject: Computer Modelling of Child Language Learning
How Do Children Learn to Judge Grammaticallity?
or
Research Issues for Computer Modelling of Child Language Learning
Thursday, July 14, 1988, 10:30 am
AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill 3D-436
Mallory Selfridge
The University of Connecticut
Development of a successful computer model of child language learning
would have important implications for the development of natural
language interfaces to computers. However, no such fully successful
model has yet been developed, and ongoing research is taking several
different approaches. The purpose of this talk is to identify the
most promising approach and the most important research issues it
suggests. This talk first discusses the problem of developing a com-
puter model of child language learning and argues that the primary
questions are those of accounting for empirical data rather than
abstract questions from theoretical linguistics. It then identifies
a set of several linguistically-motivated questions, including the
question of how children learn to judge grammaticallity, and suggests
that they should be answered as side-effects of computational mechan-
isms required to account for empirical data. The "grammar acquisi-
tion" approach to child language learning is then reviewed, and is
judged to be undesirably abstract and of uncertain promise. Then, an
example of a "semantic" approach to child language learning, the
CHILD program, is considered, and its performance in accounting for
empirical data is described. Further, CHILD's ability to learn to
judge grammaticallity is described, and answers to set of
linguistically-motivated questions are proposed as side-effects of
CHILD's mechanisms. This talk concludes that the "semantic" approach
to computer models of child language learning is the most promising,
and identifies as important research issues a) the investigation of
the relationship between language and memory processes; b) the
development of non-linguistic representations of syntactic knowledge;
c) the investigation of the process whereby the child infers the
meaning of an incompletely understood utterance; and d) the identifi-
cation and investigation of additional empirical data on child
language learning.
SPONSOR: Bruce Ballard - allegra!bwb