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Paper at a Glance

Grammatical Acquisition: Inductive Bias and
Coevolution of Language and the Language
Acquisition Device
Ted Briscoe
ejb@cl.cam.ac.uk
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/ejb
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
Pembroke Street
Cambridge CB2 3QG, UK
January 31, 2000

Abstract An account of grammatical acquisition is developed within the parameter­ setting framework applied to a generalized categorial grammar (GCG). The GCG is embedded in a default inheritance network yielding a natural partial ordering (reflecting generality) of parameters which determines a partial order for parameter setting. Computational simulation shows that several result­ ing acquisition procedures are effective on a parameter set expressing major typological distinctions based on constituent order, and defining 70 distinct full languages and over 200 subset languages. The effects on acquisition of inductive bias, that is, of differing initial parameter settings, are explored via computational simulation. Computational simulation of populations of language learners and users instantiating the acquisition model show: 1) that variant acquisition proce­ dures, with differing inductive biases, exert differing selective pressures on the evolution of language(s); 2) acquisition procedures will evolve towards more efficient variants in the environment of adaptation. The reciprocal evolution of language acquisition procedures and of languages creates a genuinely co­ evolutionary dynamic, despite the relative speed of linguistic selection for lan­ guage variants compared to natural selection for variant language acquisition procedures. 1
1 I would like to thank seminar audiences at the Universities of Edinburgh, Sussex and Cam­ bridge, and Oregon Graduate Institute, as well as the organizers and participants of the 1st and 2nd International Conferences. on Language and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, 1996, and University of East London, 1998, for helpful feedback on aspects of the work described in ...

@article{briscoe00grammaticalAcquisition,
  author={E. J. Briscoe},
  title={Grammatical Acquisition: Inductive Bias and Coevolution of Language and the Language Acquisition Device},
  journal={Language},
  year={2000},
  volume={76},
  number={2},
  pages={245-296},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe00grammaticalAcquisition.html}
}

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