Skip to main content

Bayesian NL Interpretation and Learning

  • Conference paper
Logic, Language, and Computation (TbiLLC 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 6618))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 652 Accesses

Abstract

Everyday natural language communication is normally successful, even though contemporary computational linguistics has shown that NL is characterised by very high degree of ambiguity and the results of stochastic methods are not good enough to explain the high success rate. Bayesian natural language interpretation and the combination with speaker self-monitoring are proposed as an explanation of the high success rates. The consequences of the model for language learning are briefly explored (inhibitory effects of production in understanding can only emerge when production is good enough, and inhibitory effects of comprehension in production only when comprehension is good enough) and applied to production-comprehension asymmetries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Blackmer, E.R., Mitton, J.L.: Theories of monitoring and the timing of repairs in spontaneous speech. Cognition 39, 173–194 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boersma, P.: Some listener-oriented accounts of h-aspire in french. Lingua 117 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Boersma, P., Hayes, B.: Empirical tests of the gradual learning algorithm. Linguistic Inquiry 32, 45–86 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, J., Cueni, A., Nikitina, T., Baayen, R.H.: Predicting the Dative Alternation. Cognitive Foundations of Interpretation, pp. 69–94 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, H.: Using language. CUP, Cambridge (1996)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Doya, K., Ishii, S., Pouget, A., Rao, R.P.N. (eds.): Bayesian Brain: Probabilistic Approaches to Neural Coding. MIT Press, Cambridge (2007)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Friston, K., Stephan, K.: Free energy and the brain. Synthese, 417–458 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gil, D.: Word order without syntactic categories: How riau indonesian does it? In: Carnie, A., Harley, H., Dooley, S.A. (eds.) Verb First, pp. 243–263 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldwater, S., Johnson, M.: Learning OT constraint rankings using a maximal entropy model. In: Spenader, J., Eriksson, A., Dahl, O. (eds.) Proceedings of the Stockholm Workshop on Variation within Optimality Theory, pp. 111–120 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hale, M., Reiss, C.: Formal and empirical arguments concerning phonological acquisition. Linguistic Inquiry 29, 656–683 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendriks, P., Spenader, J.: When production precedes comprehension: An optimization approach to the acquisition of pronouns. Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics 13, 319–348 (2005/2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobbs, J., Stickel, M., Appelt, D., Martin, P.: Interpretation as abduction. Technical Report 499, SRI International, Menlo Park, California (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jäger, G.: Learning constraint sub-hierarchies. the Bidirectional Gradual Learning Algorithm. In: Blutner, R., Zeevat, H. (eds.) Pragmatics and Optimality Theory. Palgrave, Oxford (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jurafsky, D., Martin, J.H.: Speech and Language Processing:An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Speech Recognition, and Computational Linguistics, 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilner, J.M., Friston, K.J., Frith, C.D.: Predictive coding: an account of the mirror neuron system. Cognitive Processing 8(3), 159–166 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levelt, W.J.: Monitoring and self-repair in speech. Cognition 14, 41–104 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levelt, W.J.M.: Speaking: From Intention to Articulation. MIT Press, Cambridge (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattausch, J., Gülzow, I.: A note on acquisition in frequency-based accounts of binding phenomena (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Noveck, I.A.: When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations of scalar implicature. Cognition 78(2), 165–188 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oaksford, M., Chater, N.: Bayesian Rationality. OUP (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, M.J., Garrod, S.: Do people use language production to make predictions during comprehension? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11(3), 105–110 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Postma, A.: Detection of errors during speech production: A review of speech monitoring models. Cognition 77, 97–131 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyle, U., Rossdeutscher, A., Kamp, H.: Ups and downs in the theory of temporal reference. Linguistics and Philosophy 30(5) (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti, G., Arbib, M.: Language within our grasp. Trends in Neurosciences 21, 188–194 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shipra, J.B., Dingare, S., Manning, D.C.: Soft constraints mirror hard constraints: Voice and person in english and lummi. In: Butt, M., King, T.H. (eds.) Proceedings of the LFG 2001 Conference. CSLI, pp. 13–32. CSLI Publications, Stanford (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolensky, P.: On the comprehension/production dilemma in child language. Linguistic Inquiry 27, 720–731 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolensky, P., Legendre, G.: The harmonic mind: from neural computation to optimality-theoretic grammar. MIT Press, Cambridge (2006)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Tomasello, M.: Origins of Human Communication. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeevat, H.: Freezing and marking. Linguistics 5, 1097–1111 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeevat, H.: Optimal interpretation as an alternative to Gricean pragmatics. In: Structuring Information in Discourse: The Explicit /Implicit Dimension. Oslo Studies in Language. OSLA, Oslo (2009a)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeevat, H.: Optimal interpretation for rhetorical relations. In: Kühnlein, P., Benz, A., Sidner, C.L. (eds.) Constraints in Discourse 2, pp. 35–60. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2009b)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Zeevat, H. (2011). Bayesian NL Interpretation and Learning. In: Bezhanishvili, N., Löbner, S., Schwabe, K., Spada, L. (eds) Logic, Language, and Computation. TbiLLC 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6618. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22303-7_22

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22303-7_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-22302-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-22303-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics