Putting Meaning into Grammar Learning
Nancy Chang · 2004
This paper proposes a formulation of grammar learning in which meaning plays a fundamental role. We present a computational model that aims to satisfy convergent constraints from cognitive lin-guistics and crosslinguistic developmental evidence within a statistically driven framework. The target grammar, input data and goal of learning are all de-signed to allow a tight coupling between language learning and comprehension that drives the acqui-sition of new constructions. The model is applied to learn lexically specific multi-word constructions from annotated child-directed transcript data. 1