Constructing Grammar
For my thesis research I have built a model of the acquisition of early multiword and grammatical constructions, with special attention to relational form-meaning mappings. The main components of the approach I am taking include:
- rich situational representations that approximate the conceptual world available to a language-learning toddler;
- a computationally precise grammatical formalism for representing linguistic constructions pairing these rich meanings with elements of form;
- and a usage-based approach to learning such constructions from a corpus of utterance-situation pairs, based on minimum description length.
Together these representations, both conceptual and constructional,
support a tractable usage-based cross-linguistic model of child
language acquisition, with a central role for meaning as it is
communicated in context.
Representative publications
See here for relevant learning papers, including:Chang and Gurevich 2004. Context-Driven Construction Learning [ref] (Synopsis of learning model and preliminary results)
Chang 2004. A computational model of comprehension-based construction acquisition. [ref] (Brief non-technical overview.)A few chapters of my dissertation (Constructing Grammar: A Computational Model of the Acquisition of Early Constructions) are available in draft form, with the rest coming soon...
Dissertation abstract
Chapter 1. Beyond Single Words (non-technical introduction, research context and goals)
Chapter 2. Orientations (survey of multidisciplinary background assumptions)
Chapter 3. Embodied Construction Grammar (introduction to ECG formalism)
