<OT> New Posting: ROA-618

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ROA 618-1003

Enforcing grammatical restrictiveness can help resolve structural ambiguity

Bruce Tesar <tesar at ruccs.rutgers.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=618


Abstract:
This paper deals with the interaction between two problems
that arise in  human language learning, structural ambiguity
and the subset problem. The  main claim of this paper is
that the notion of r-measure, already proposed  as a measure
of grammatical restrictiveness, can be used to deal with
complexities in structural ambiguity that result from interaction
s with  subset learning. The approach combines an algorithm
for contending with  structural ambiguity, the Inconsistency
Detection Learner, with an algorithm  for dealing with the
subset problem, Biased Constraint Demotion. Biased  Constraint
Demotion is designed to find, for a set of data, the grammar
with  the best r-measure, a measure of grammatical restrictivenes
s based upon a  preference for markedness constraints dominating
faithfulness constraints.  The Inconsistency Detection Learner
component tries different combinations  of interpretations
of structurally ambiguous forms, keeping only those  combinations
that are consistent with at least one grammar. For each
such  combination of interpretations, Biased Constraint
Demotion is used to find  the most restrictive grammar consistent
with the interpretations. The  different grammars are then
compared with respect to their r-measures, and  the grammar
with the best r-measure is chosen by the learner as the
final  learned grammar. Computer simulation results, running
the algorithm on an  example exhibiting interaction between
structural ambiguity and the subset  problem, are presented.

This paper appears in the proceedings of WCCFL 21.

Comments: 
Keywords: structural ambiguity
Areas: Learnability
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=618