probability and linguistic theory - sci.lang

Viesti keskustelusta probability and linguistic theory

Herman Rubin

Näytä profiili

Lisäasetukset 12 maalis 1992, 23:42

Uutisryhmät: sci.lang

Lähettäjä: hru...@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)

Päivämäärä: 12 Mar 92 21:15:03 GMT

Paikallinen: To 12 maalis 1992 23:15

Aihe: Re: re: probability and linguistic theory

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In article <1992Mar11.221220.29...@williams.edu> ddai...@williams.edu writes:
>In article <44...@dime.cs.umass.edu> krov...@CS.UMASS.EDU (Bob Krovetz) writes:
>>Andy Fano (f...@zoo1.ils.nwu.edu) writes:
>>>In article <44...@dime.cs.umass.edu>, krov...@CS.UMASS.EDU (Bob Krovetz)
>writes:
>>>> How does work on stochastic models of language in any way deny the
>>>> existence of a mental system???
><stuff deleted>
>>>A heavy reliance on word frequencies in natural language processing is
>>>often a warning sign that an analysis of the meaning of the language
>>>is being avoided.

.....................

>Introspectively, stochastic processes seem to play a role in the way I
>construct sentences: I have an idea, I begin to construct a sentence, and I
>play with various possible continuations of the sentence, with a distincly
>non-deterministic outcome awaiting me. Using probabilities and grammars in the
>same endeavor would therefore make sense. BTW there are a kind of parallel
>production systems in which each character on the left of the production is
>rewritten simultaneously; the complexity hierarchy is orthogonal to Chomsky's
>types 0,1,2,3.

Statements such as language is a stochastic process are useless. All this
means is that there is some joint probability distrubution over all
utterences, taking into account alse the times of those utterances. It
would provide no information whatever to say that all observations by any
observer form a stochastic process.

It is only when restrictions are put on the process that there is any
content to the formulation. To say that the process is a process of
independent random variables, or a Markov process of a given order,
provides a restriction which presumably can be tested.

However, any assumptions about the process should be made on linguistic
grounds, not mathematical convenience.
--
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hru...@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)

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