Journal article
Language as skill: Intertwining comprehension and production
Journal of memory and language, Vol.89, pp.244-254
08/2016
DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2015.11.004
Abstract
•The “Now-or-Never Bottleneck” link between production and comprehension.•We outline a computational model, the Chunk-Based Learner (CBL).•The CBL carries out both production and comprehension.•The CBL generates behavioral production–comprehension asymmetries.•This work favors of unitary accounts of production and comprehension.
Are comprehension and production a single, integrated skill, or are they separate processes drawing on a shared abstract knowledge of language? We argue that a fundamental constraint on memory, the Now-or-Never bottleneck, implies that language processing is incremental and that language learning occurs on-line. These properties are difficult to reconcile with the ‘abstract knowledge’ viewpoint, and crucially suggest that language comprehension and production are facets of a unitary skill. This viewpoint is exemplified in the Chunk-Based Learner, a computational acquisition model that processes incrementally and learns on-line. The model both parses and produces language; and implements the idea that language acquisition is nothing more than learning to process. We suggest that the Now-or-Never bottleneck also provides a strong motivation for unified perception–production models in other domains of communication and cognition.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Language as skill: Intertwining comprehension and production
- Creators
- Nick Chater - University of WarwickStewart M McCauley - Cornell UniversityMorten H Christiansen - Cornell University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of memory and language, Vol.89, pp.244-254
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jml.2015.11.004
- ISSN
- 0749-596X
- eISSN
- 1096-0821
- Grant note
- name: ERC, award: 295917-RATIONALITY; name: ESRC Network for Integrated Behavioural Science, award: ES/K002201/1, RP2012-V-022, EP/K039830/1, 2011107; DOI: 10.13039/501100000275, name: Leverhulme Trust; DOI: 10.13039/501100000690, name: Research Councils UK; DOI: 10.13039/100001982, name: BSF
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2016
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9984258851102771
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