Models of Language Acquisition: Inductive and Deductive Approaches

This book presents recent advances by leading researchers in computational modelling of language acquisition. The contributors have been drawn from departments of linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, and computer science. They show what light can be thrown on fundamental problems when powerful computational techniques are combined with real data. The book considers the extent to which linguistic structure is readily available in the environment, the degree to which language learning is inductive or deductive, and the power of different modelling formalisms for different problems and approaches. It will appeal to linguists, psychologists, cognitive scientists working in language acquisition,and to those involved in computational modelling in linguistic and behavioral science.