Chapter 13 - Formal Learning Theory*

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This chapter discusses the formal models of language acquisition. Contemporary learning theory has two principal branches that is termed “recursion theoretic” and “model theoretic.” They are distinguished by the tools used to define and study paradigms. The recursion theoretic side of the discipline is older and better developed. The concerns about recursion theoretic modeling are voiced and the alternative perspective is introduced in the chapter. There is no better introduction to learning theory than presentation of its most fundamental paradigm. It seems evident that children have limited memory for the sentences presented to them. Once processed, sentences are likely to be quickly erased from the child's memory. A child is memory limited if his/her conjectures arise from the interaction of the current input sentence with the latest grammar that he/she has formulated and stored. Compared to the original paradigm, the memory limited model of linguistic development makes a stronger claim about comparative grammar, imposing a more stringent condition on the class of human languages. According to the refined paradigm, the human languages are not just identifiable but identifiable by a memory limited learner.

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Research support was provided by the Office of Naval Research under contracts Nos. N00014-87-K-0401 N00014-89-J-1725 and by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number 21-32399.91. Correspondence to D. Osherson, DIPSCO, Istituto San Rafaelle, Via Olgettina 60, I-20132 Milano, Italy.

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