Usage-Based Models of Language (Paperback)

Michael Barlow

ISBN 10: 1575862204 / ISBN 13: 9781575862200

Verlag: Center for the Study of Language and Informat, Stanford, 2002

Beschreibung

Paperback. This book brings together papers by the foremost representatives of a range of theoretical and empirical approaches converging on a common goal: to account for language use, or how speakers actually speak and understand language. Crucial to a usage-based approach are frequency, statistical patterns, and, most generally, linguistic experience. Linguistic competence is not seen as cognitively-encapsulated and divorced from performance, but as a system continually shaped, from inception, by linguistic usage events. The authors represented here were among the first to leave behind rule-based linguistic representations in favour of constraint-based systems whose structural properties actually emerge from usage. Such emergentist systems evince far greater cognitive and neurological plausibility than algorithmic, generative models. Approaches represented here include Cognitive Grammar, the Lexical Network Model, Competition Model, Relational Network Model, and accessibility Theory. The empirical data come from phonological variation, syntactic change, psycholinguistic experiments, discourse, connectionist modelling of language acquisition, and linguistic corpora. How do humans learn how to speak and understand language? For years, linguists have developed numerous models in attempts to explain humans' ability to communicate through language. Historically, these approaches were rooted and restricted in rule-based linguistic representations. Only recently has the field of linguistics been willing to forego formal representations and models to accommodate the usage-based perspective of studying language. Deviating from traditional methods, the contributions presented in this volume are among the first works to approach linguistic theory by developing and utilizing usage-based models. The contributing authors were among the principal leaders in their fields to leave behind rule-based linguistic representations in favor of constraint-based systems whose structural properties actually emerge from usage. The volume begins with an introductory chapter that defines contributors' interpretations of usage-based models and theories of language. The reason for the shift from formal linguistic theories to the gradual acceptance of usage-based models is also examined. Using methods such as Cognitive Grammar, the Lexical Network Model, Competition Model, Relational Network Theory, and Accessibility Theory, the selected works demonstrate how usage-based models evince far greater cognitive and neurological plausibility than algorithmic, generative models. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 9781575862200

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Usage-Based Models of Language (Paperback)
• Verlag: Center for the Study of Language and Informat, Stanford
• Veröffentlichungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 1575862204
• ISBN-13: 9781575862200
• Bindung: Paperback
• Zustand: new

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

This book brings together papers by the foremost representatives of a range of theoretical and empirical approaches converging on a common goal: to account for language use, or how speakers actually speak and understand language. Approaches represented here include Cognitive Grammar, the Lexical Network Model, Competition Model, Relational Network Model, and Accessibility Theory.

Reseña del editor

This book brings together papers by the foremost representatives of a range of theoretical and empirical approaches converging on a common goal: to account for language use, or how speakers actually speak and understand language. Crucial to a usage-based approach are frequency, statistical patterns, and, most generally, linguistic experience. Linguistic competence is not seen as cognitively-encapsulated and divorced from performance, but as a system continually shaped, from inception, by linguistic usage events. The authors represented here were among the first to leave behind rule-based linguistic representations in favour of constraint-based systems whose structural properties actually emerge from usage. Such emergentist systems evince far greater cognitive and neurological plausibility than algorithmic, generative models. Approaches represented here include Cognitive Grammar, the Lexical Network Model, Competition Model, Relational Network Model, and accessibility Theory. The empirical data come from phonological variation, syntactic change, psycholinguistic experiments, discourse, connectionist modelling of language acquisition, and linguistic corpora.