Abstract
This chapter compares two computational frameworks developed over the last decade to support investigations into the emergence and use of language, Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG) and Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG). Both of these representational formalisms are rooted in the construction grammar tradition, sharing basic assumptions about the nature of linguistic units and the crucial role played by contextual factors. Nonetheless, they have arisen from different perspectives and with different goals: FCG was designed to support computational language game experiments that address the evolution of communication in populations of robotic agents, while ECG was designed to support cognitive modeling of human language acquisition and use. We investigate how these differing emphases motivated different design choices in the two formalisms and illustrate the linguistic and computational consequences of these choices through a concrete case study. Results of this comparison sharpen issues relevant to computational construction grammar in general and may hold lessons for broader computational investigations into linguistic phenomena.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bergen, B., Chang, N.: Embodied Construction Grammar in simulation-based language understanding. In: Östman, J.O., Fried, M. (eds.) Construction Grammar(s): Cognitive and Cross-Language Dimensions. Johns Benjamins (2005)
Bleys, J., Stadler, K., De Beule, J.: Search in linguistic processing. In: Steels, L. (ed.) Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2011)
Bryant, J.: Best-fit Constructional Analysis. Ph.D. thesis, UC Berkeley (2008)
Chang, N.: Constructing grammar: A computational model of the emergence of early constructions. Ph.D. thesis, Computer Science Department, University of California, Berkeley (2008)
Ciortuz, L., Saveluc, V.: Fluid Construction Grammar and Feature Constraint Logics. In: Steels, L. (ed.) Computational Issues in FCG. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 7249, pp. 289–311. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Dodge, E.: Conceptual and constructional composition. Ph.D. thesis, Computer Science Department, University of California, Berkeley (2010)
Feldman, J.: From Molecule to Metaphor: A Neural Theory of Language. MIT Press, Cambridge (2006)
Fillmore, C.J.: Frame semantics. In: Linguistics in the Morning Calm, Seoul, pp. 111–137 (1982)
Goldberg, A.E.: Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1995)
Kay, P., Fillmore, C.: Grammatical constructions and linguistic generalizations: the whats x doing y? construction. Language 75(1) (1999)
Lakoff, G.: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1987)
Langacker, R.W.: Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Theoretical Prerequisites, vol. I. Stanford University Press, Stanford (1987)
Manning, C., Carpenter, B.: Probabilistic parsing using left-corner language models. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Parsing Technology (1997)
Micelli, V.: Field Topology and Information Structure: A Case Study for German Constituent Order. In: Steels, L. (ed.) Computational Issues in FCG. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 7249, pp. 178–211. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Micelli, V., Van Trijp, R., De Beule, J.: Framing fluid construction grammar. In: Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, COGSCI (2009), http://www.csl.sony.fr/downloads/papers/2009/micelli-09a.pdf
Mok, E.H.: Contextual Bootstrapping for Grammar Learning. Ph.D. thesis, Computer Science Department, University of California, Berkeley (2008)
Mok, E.H., Bryant, J., Feldman, J.: Scaling understanding up to mental spaces. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Scalable Natural Language Understanding (ScaNaLU 2004), Boston, MA (2004)
Schneider, N.: Computational cognitive morphosemantics: modeling morphological compositionality in hebrew verbs with embodied construction grammar. In: Proc. of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Berkeley, CA (2010)
Spranger, M., Loetzsch, M.: Syntactic indeterminacy and semantic ambiguity: A case study for German spatial phrases. In: Steels, L. (ed.) Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2011)
Steels, L. (ed.): Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2011)
Steels, L.: A first encounter with Fluid Construction Grammar. In: Steels, L. (ed.) Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2011)
van Trijp, R.: Feature matrices and agreement: A case study for German case. In: Steels, L. (ed.) Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chang, N., De Beule, J., Micelli, V. (2012). Computational Construction Grammar: Comparing ECG and FCG. In: Steels, L. (eds) Computational Issues in Fluid Construction Grammar. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7249. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34120-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34120-5_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34119-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34120-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)