Expressions in formal and natural languages have a lot in common. Both kinds of expression are finite combinations of symbols that are well-formed according to particular rules of syntax. Symbols and expressions in formal languages denote formal objects (numbers, sets, functions). Symbols and expressions in natural language denote mental objects (individuals, groups, properties). Sentences in …
Author archives: James
Gold’s Theorems
Though we can imagine the rules of language as a formal grammar, an important caveat – reiterated in many discussions of formal linguistics – is that this should not be taken as any indication that people mentally execute rewrite rules while speaking. A grammar serves merely as a formal description of the language that we …
Formal language models
In the second blogpost of this series, we’ll follow Pinker in his discussion of formal language models. This post will give a brief introduction to formal (a.k.a. mathematical) linguistics, which enables discussions about language learnability. Languages as formal objects If we want a formal model of language acquisition, we of course require a formal definition …
Theories of language acquisition
This blogpost is the first in a series that explores some of the ideas about language acquisition put forward by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker in his 1979 article Formal Models of Language Learning, published in the journal Cognition, where he persuaded his peers in the field of developmental psycholinguistics to consider the value of formal …