Co-evolution of Language and of the Language Acquisition Device
Abstract
Description
A new account of parameter setting during grammatical acquisition is presented in terms of Generalized Categorial Grammar embedded in a default inheritance hierarchy, providing a natural partial ordering on the setting of parameters. Experiments show that several experimentally effective learners can be defined in this framework. Evolutionary simulations suggest that a learner with default initial settings for parameters will emerge, provided that learning is memory limited and the environment of linguistic adaptation contains an appropriate language.
10 pages, latex, 2 postscript figures, uses aclap.sty and graphics.sty, to appear ACL-EACL97
10 pages, latex, 2 postscript figures, uses aclap.sty and graphics.sty, to appear ACL-EACL97