The Baby project: processing character patterns in textual representations of language.

This thesis describes an investigation into a proposed theory of AI. The theory postulates that a machine can be programmed to predict aspects of human behaviour by selecting and processing stored, concrete examples of previously experienced patterns of behaviour. Validity is tested in the domain of natural language. Externalisations that model the resulting theory of NLP entail fuzzy components. Fuzzy formalisms may exhibit inaccuracy and/or over productivity. A research strategy is developed, designed to investigate this aspect of the theory. The strategy includes two experimental hypotheses designed to test, 1) whether the model can process simple language interaction, and 2) the effect of fuzzy processes on such language interaction. Experimental design requires three implementations, each with progressive degrees of fuzziness in their processes. They are respectively named: Nonfuzz Babe, CorrBab and FuzzBabe. Nonfuzz Babe is used to test the first hypothesis and all three implementations are used to test the second hypothesis. A system description is presented for Nonfuzz Babe. Testing the first hypothesis provides results that show NonfuzzBabe is able to process simple language interaction. A system description for CorrBabe and FuzzBabe is presented. Testing the second hypothesis, provides results that show a positive correlation between degree of fuzzy processes and improved simple language performance. FuzzBabe's ability to process more complex language interaction is then investigated and model-intrinsic limitations are found. Research to overcome this problem is designed to illustrate the potential of externalisation of the theory and is conducted less rigorously than previous part of this investigation. Augmenting FuzzBabe to include fuzzy evaluation of non-pattern elements of interaction is hypothesised as a possible solution. The term FuzzyBaby was coined for augmented implementation. Results of a pilot study designed to measure FuzzyBaby's reading comprehension are given. Little research has been conducted that investigates NLP by the fuzzy processing of concrete patterns in language. Consequently, it is proposed that this research contributes to the intellectual disciplines of NLP and AI in general

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a constraint-based or declarative approach to linguistic knowledge, which analyses all descriptive levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) with feature value pairs, structure sharing, and relational constraints. In syntax it assumes that expressions have a single relatively simple constituent structure. This volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the framework. Various chapters discuss basic assumptions and formal foundations, describe the evolution of the framework, and go into the details of the main syntactic phenomena. Further chapters are devoted to non-syntactic levels of description. The book also considers related fields and research areas (gesture, sign languages, computational linguistics) and includes chapters comparing HPSG with other frameworks (Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Construction Grammar, Dependency Grammar, and Minimalism)

Communication and content

Communication and content presents a comprehensive and foundational account of meaning based on new versions of situation theory and game theory. The literal and implied meanings of an utterance are derived from first principles assuming little more than the partial rationality of interacting agents. New analyses of a number of diverse phenomena – a wide notion of ambiguity and content encompassing phonetics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and beyond, vagueness, convention and conventional meaning, indeterminacy, universality, the role of truth in communication, semantic change, translation, Frege’s puzzle of informative identities – are developed. Communication, speaker meaning, and reference are defined. Frege’s context and compositional principles are generalized and reconciled in a fixed-point principle, and a detailed critique of Grice, several aspects of Lewis, and some aspects of the Romantic conception of meaning are offered

Communication and content

Communication and content presents a comprehensive and foundational account of meaning based on new versions of situation theory and game theory. The literal and implied meanings of an utterance are derived from first principles assuming little more than the partial rationality of interacting agents. New analyses of a number of diverse phenomena – a wide notion of ambiguity and content encompassing phonetics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and beyond, vagueness, convention and conventional meaning, indeterminacy, universality, the role of truth in communication, semantic change, translation, Frege’s puzzle of informative identities – are developed. Communication, speaker meaning, and reference are defined. Frege’s context and compositional principles are generalized and reconciled in a fixed-point principle, and a detailed critique of Grice, several aspects of Lewis, and some aspects of the Romantic conception of meaning are offered. Connections with other branches of linguistics, especially psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and natural language processing, are explored. The book will be of interest to scholars in philosophy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. It should also interest readers in related fields like literary and cultural theory and the social sciences

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a constraint-based or declarative approach to linguistic knowledge, which analyses all descriptive levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) with feature value pairs, structure sharing, and relational constraints. In syntax it assumes that expressions have a single relatively simple constituent structure. This volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the framework. Various chapters discuss basic assumptions and formal foundations, describe the evolution of the framework, and go into the details of the main syntactic phenomena. Further chapters are devoted to non-syntactic levels of description. The book also considers related fields and research areas (gesture, sign languages, computational linguistics) and includes chapters comparing HPSG with other frameworks (Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Construction Grammar, Dependency Grammar, and Minimalism)

Mathematical linguistics

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Communication and content

Communication and content presents a comprehensive and foundational account of meaning based on new versions of situation theory and game theory. The literal and implied meanings of an utterance are derived from first principles assuming little more than the partial rationality of interacting agents. New analyses of a number of diverse phenomena – a wide notion of ambiguity and content encompassing phonetics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and beyond, vagueness, convention and conventional meaning, indeterminacy, universality, the role of truth in communication, semantic change, translation, Frege’s puzzle of informative identities – are developed. Communication, speaker meaning, and reference are defined. Frege’s context and compositional principles are generalized and reconciled in a fixed-point principle, and a detailed critique of Grice, several aspects of Lewis, and some aspects of the Romantic conception of meaning are offered

The Informational Complexity of Learning from Examples

This thesis attempts to quantify the amount of information needed to learn certain tasks. The tasks chosen vary from learning functions in a Sobolev space using radial basis function networks to learning grammars in the principles and parameters framework of modern linguistic theory. These problems are analyzed from the perspective of computational learning theory and certain unifying perspectives emerge