Machine Learning of Natural Language

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Art, Science and Engineering

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 1-25

3. Metaphor as a Cognitive Process

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 27-54

4. Psychology and Psycholinguistics

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 55-75

5. Language Defects and Correction

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 77-95

6. Cognition and Restriction

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 97-127

7. Nativism and Constructivism

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 129-160

8. Neurology and Neurolinguistics

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 161-186

9. The Nature of Language

   • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

   Pages 187-208

10. The Mechanics of Language

    • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

    Pages 209-231

11. The Ubiquity of the Sentence

    • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

    Pages 233-252

12. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

    • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

    Pages 253-277

13. Heuristics and Analytic Intransigence

    • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

    Pages 279-302

14. Postulates, Claims and Hypotheses

    • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

    Pages 303-326

15. Computer Modelling Experiments

    • David M. W. Powers, Christopher C. R. Turk

    Pages 327-358

We met because we both share the same views of language. Language is a living organism, produced by neural mechanisms relating in large numbers as a society. Language exists between minds, as a way of communicating between them, not as an autonomous process. The logical 'rules' seem to us an epiphe­ nomena ·of the neural mechanism, rather than an essential component in language. This view of language has been advocated by an increasing number of workers, as the view that language is simply a collection of logical rules has had less and less success. People like Yorick Wilks have been able to show in paper after paper that almost any rule which can be devised can be shown to have exceptions. The meaning does not lie in the rules. David Powers is a teacher of computer science. Christopher Turk, like many workers who have come into the field of AI (Artificial Intelligence) was originally trained in literature. He moved into linguistics, and then into computational linguistics. In 1983 he took a sabbatical in Roger Shank's AI project in the Computer Science Department at Yale University. Like an earlier visitor to the project, John Searle from California, Christopher Turk was increasingly uneasy at the view of language which was used at Yale.

• artificial intelligence
• cognition
• epistemology
• grammar
• heuristics
• intelligence
• learning
• linguistics
• machine learning
• modeling
• natural language
• pattern recognition
• problem solving
• psycholinguistics
• robotics

• FB Informatik, University of Kaiserslautern, Petersham, Australia

  David M. W. Powers

• Macquarie University, Petersham, Australia

  David M. W. Powers

• IMPACT Ltd, Petersham, Australia

  David M. W. Powers

• ‘Bentwys’, Llanbair Discoed, Chepstow, Gwent, UK

  Christopher C. R. Turk

• College of Cardiff, University of Wales, UK

  Christopher C. R. Turk

Policies and ethics