<OT> New Posting: ROA-1038

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 1038-0709

Elephants and Optimality Again: SA-OT accounts for pronoun resolution in child language

Tamas Biro <birot at nytud.hu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1038


Abstract:
Children display a surprising delay in correctly resolving
pronouns, while they employ Chomsky's binding principles
correctly in production and in resolving reflexives. We
account for the mistakes as performance errors that are
predicted by an Optimality Theoretical model implemented
using simulated annealing (SA-OT). Our experiments suggest
three novel explanations of the facts (see section 6). Additional
ly, the Optimality Theory-Harmony Grammar connection is
also explored: the behaviour of the HG-based performance
model converges to the OT-model if the base of the exponential
weights grow large.

Comments: To appear in: selected papers from CLIN 19 (Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands), Groningen, January 2009.
Keywords: simulated annealing, child language, pronoun resolution, delay in Principle B, harmony grammar, Godot effect
Areas: Syntax,Computation,Language Acquisition
Type: Conference Proceedings Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1038