Semantics midterm chap 1 Flashcards
behaviorism
Behaviorism rejected all appeal to any unobservable entities such as either instincts, in the case of nonhuman animals, or the mind, its states and its activities, in the case of humans.
Behaviorism admitted only observable and measurable data as objects worthy of scientific study. Behaviorists, accordingly, confined themselves to the study of an organism’s observable and measurable physical stimulus, its observable and measurable response elicited by the stimulus and any biological processes relating stimulus to response.
Like with animals using something innate and endowed, while language have language acquisition device
structuralism
ethology
constituency grammar
critical period
competence vs performance
Competence vs Performance
Return to mentalism
Contrast with/between behaviorists and ethologists, focus on behavior
Linguistics
Output is grammatical competence, cannot be observed
deprivation experience
Different theories
Chomsky: poverty of stimulus
Deprivation experiments (no or bad use of language)
Victor, l’enfant sauvage = no acquire language
Kaspar Hauset found in Bohemia in 1828 =
Kamala & Amala in Bengal =
Genie in LA = never fully acquired natural language
More or less documented
Big compounding factor: abuse role in mental life and development?
diachronic
synchronic
fixed action pattern
language acquisition device
properties human language vs animal commication
indian grammatical tradition
on notion
minimal pairs
Though the illustrations given herein all involve causation, and though Mill himself
clearly thought of them as methods pertaining to observational causal regularities, they have
wider use. As it happens, these methods have long been known to linguists. Indeed, these
methods were employed by the ancient Indian grammarians, who also called them,
coincidentally, the methods of agreement (anvaya) and difference (vyatireka). The joint
method is familiar to linguists today as the method of minimal pairs, a technique most
commonly used by phonologists, but in fact used in all areas of linguistic investigation. We shall be using such evidence extensively in the chapters that follow. Indeed, such evidence
has already been adduced several times in earlier sections of this chapter.
to test empirical inquiry, following Mill’s methods of agreement, difference and joint..
poverty of stimulus argument
Remarks:
While the conclusions of the argument were widely accepted by linguists, they were greeted by scepticism by many philosophers (eg Hilary Putnam), and in more recent times they have been argued against by connectionists (Ellman et al). So-called deep learning poses a serious challenge to conclusions drawn from the poverty of the stimulus argument
The debate is not about whether or not humans have an innate capacity to learn language, it is rather whether or not human beings have a capacity specialized in language acquisition (Fodor 1981)
Do we learn language through rules? (previous views) -> just weight settings, that make use settle on a grammar
Both views are separate with endowment
Deep learning: neuro networks, could model what could happen in the brain, models are input like neurons = based on analogy of neuro networks: math model that maps of what is in the brain
Rule or neuro-networks
formation rules
If x E L, then x E SL
If y E SL, and z E SL, then yz E S
.. prefixation and suffixation possible
making complex expression on simpler expressions
valuation rules
Clause 2.0 Assign values to the basic expression, which are found in the set of U and B
Clause 2.1 Assign values to expressions which arise from clause (1.1)
Clause 2.2 Assign values to those expressions which arise from clause (1.2)
central problem of natural language semantics
How is one’s understanding of a complex expression of natural language and of ENglish in particular, determined by one’s understanding of the expressions making it up?
What are the complex expressions of a natural language formed? A key notion required to answer this question is that of recurisison, Basic english grammar
How are the values of complex expressions determines by the values by the expressions making them up? Answering this question comes from model theory and set theory, the last 2 branches of logic
Set theory: values to
To understanding logic, especially model theory, one must understand to basic set theory
There are 3 kinds of English language expressions covered in the book: only 2 in class
English independent, coordinated and subordinated clauses (connectors, classical propositional logic: notation & semantics)
English minimal, independent clauses (grammatical predicates & minimal clauses, classical predicate logic
English independent simple clauses with somewhat noun phrases (not covered in this course) (deduction, classical quantificational logic, chap 12, chap 13)
