possible subtitle: a brief history of perspectives in [[language acquisition]] key [[intention|goal]]s / takeaways of talk: - basic framework / [[pedagogical communication|mental model]] of [[linguistic]]s as a science; 20-th century [[movements in cognitive science]] - why was the [[poverty of the stimulus]] argument for [[universal grammar]] so compelling? what do many linguists now see as its flaws? - [[falsify|philosophy of science]]: the importance of *testable hypotheses* and arguable definitions (no [[motte and bailey]]) - three time scales of [[development]]; [[culture|cultural / memetic]] largely ignored until recently. is this a useful [[metaphor|analogy]] to emulate in machine learning frameworks? - how can we avoid similar confusion in [[machine learning]] as a science? first [[about me]]: [[conlang]]ing back in [[high school]] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a5NVCfw1wLiq6ySgIFjBpyflv4QVbUJysatEegEfjL0/edit?tab=t.0 ![[linguistic#^2390]] ![[why are human languages complicated#^2421]] # introduction to [[prescriptive and descriptive linguistics|descriptive]] [[linguistic]]s [[science]] of [[human language]] broadly speaking; at [[1636 Harvard]]: part of [[humanities]] history: mention global [[history]] of [[movements in cognitive science]] emergence of [[1924 American descriptivism]]s: [[anatomy]] of [[human language]]: "paradox of [[language acquisition]]" key idea behind [[semiotic]]s: [[syntax is not semantics]] [[generative grammar#^programming-analogy]]: mention some [[linguistic brain teaser]]s show examples from [[poverty of the stimulus]] # introduction to [[generative grammar]] briefly describe [[movements in cognitive science]]: transition from [[behaviourism]] ([[associative learning]] and [[reinforcement learning]]) to [[cognitive]] focus: see [[movements in cognitive science#^skinner-chomsky]] [[poverty of the stimulus]] argument for [[universal grammar]]: crucial to [[opinion]]s around [[language acquisition]]. break it down! [[1928 Noam Chomsky]] now finds himself in a similar position to the one held by [[1957SkinnerVerbalBehavior]] that he criticized: unclear definition of [[universal grammar]]: do we mean [[grammar rule]]s or other [[linguistic innate]] abilities or even [[human cognitive skill]]; much of [[generative grammar]] now depends on un[[falsify]]able hypotheses shunted off to [[universal grammar]] # introduction to [[usage based linguistic]]s common counterargument from generative linguistics: we have yet to see a plausible *concrete* proposal for [[language acquisition]] besides [[universal grammar]] / [[principles and parameters]] enter [[2003TomaselloConstructingLanguageUsagebased]]: first comprehensive, systematic framework for [[language acquisition]] that rejects [[universal grammar]]: [[usage based linguistic]] based on [[development]] ([[dual inheritance]]) and [[human cognitive skill]]s ![[criticism of generative grammar#^criticism]] *bring [[2025GrossGrugBrainedDeveloper|complexity bad]] mug* [[Occams razor]]? sometimes hard to tell which is more simple and which is more complex. might be good time to mention [[1980LakoffJohnsonMetaphorsWeLive|metaphors we live by]] and [[qualia|subjectivity]]. [[linguistic relativity]] # parallels to machine learning [[natural language processing]] [[relational representation]]s vs [[artificial neural network|connectionist]] [[ladder of abstraction]] as underlying framework: [[double descent]] as [[metaphor|analogy]] to how children seek to [[grammar rule|regularize]] / "overcorrect" during [[language acquisition]] [[1980LakoffJohnsonMetaphorsWeLive|metaphors we live by]] misinterpreting [[2019SuttonBitterLesson]] ![[2019SuttonBitterLesson#^causality]] [[meta learning]] / [[in context]] learning seems to blur the line # sources [[1959ChomskyReviewVerbalBehavior]] [[1995TomaselloJointAttentionSocial]] [[2000JackendoffPatternsMindLanguage]] [[2003TomaselloConstructingLanguageUsagebased]] - [[2003TomaselloBiologicalCulturalOntogenetic]] [[2017CowieInnatenessLanguage]] [[1986ChomskyKnowledgeLanguageIts]] [[2018McCoyEtAlRevisitingPovertyStimulus]] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_of_the_stimulus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage-based_models_of_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychology