This paper highlights a small selection of cases where cross-linguistic insights have been important to big questions in the theory of semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. The selection includes (i) the role and representation of Speaker and Addressee in the grammar; (ii) mismatches between form and interpretation motivating high-placed silent operators for functional elements; and (iii) the explanation of semantic universals, including universals pertaining to inventories, in terms of learnability and the trade-off between informativeness and simplicity.
{"title":"Cross-linguistic insights in the theory of semantics and its interface with syntax","authors":"Anna Szabolcsi","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2009","url":null,"abstract":"This paper highlights a small selection of cases where cross-linguistic insights have been important to big questions in the theory of semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. The selection includes (i) the role and representation of Speaker and Addressee in the grammar; (ii) mismatches between form and interpretation motivating high-placed silent operators for functional elements; and (iii) the explanation of semantic universals, including universals pertaining to inventories, in terms of learnability and the trade-off between informativeness and simplicity.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Large language models are better than theoretical linguists at theoretical linguistics, at least in the domain of verb argument structure; explaining why (for example), we can say both The ball rolled and Someone rolled the ball, but not both The man laughed and *Someone laughed the man. Verbal accounts of this phenomenon either do not make precise quantitative predictions at all, or do so only with the help of ancillary assumptions and by-hand data processing. Large language models, on the other hand (taking text-davinci-002 as an example), predict human acceptability ratings for these types of sentences with correlations of around r = 0.9, and themselves constitute theories of language acquisition and representation; theories that instantiate exemplar-, input- and construction-based approaches, though only very loosely. Indeed, large language models succeed where these verbal (i.e., non-computational) linguistic theories fail, precisely because the latter insist – in the service of intuitive interpretability – on simple yet empirically inadequate (over)generalizations.
大语言模型在理论语言学方面比理论语言学家更胜一筹，至少在动词参数结构领域是如此；它可以解释为什么（例如）我们既可以说 "球滚了"，也可以说 "有人滚了球"，但不能同时说 "那个人笑了 "和 "*有人笑了那个人"。对这一现象的语言描述要么根本无法做出精确的定量预测，要么只能借助辅助假设和手工数据处理才能做到。另一方面，大型语言模型（以文本-davinci-002 为例）可以预测人类对这类句子的可接受性评分，相关性约为 r = 0.9，其本身也构成了语言习得和表征的理论；这些理论实例化了基于范例、输入和构建的方法，尽管只是非常松散的。事实上，大型语言模型之所以能在这些语言理论（即非计算）失败的地方取得成功，正是因为后者为了直观的可解释性而坚持简单但经验上不充分的（过度）概括。
{"title":"Large language models are better than theoretical linguists at theoretical linguistics","authors":"Ben Ambridge, Liam Blything","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2002","url":null,"abstract":"Large language models are better than theoretical linguists at theoretical linguistics, at least in the domain of verb argument structure; explaining why (for example), we can say both <jats:italic>The ball rolled</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Someone rolled the ball</jats:italic>, but not both <jats:italic>The man laughed</jats:italic> and *<jats:italic>Someone laughed the man</jats:italic>. Verbal accounts of this phenomenon either do not make precise quantitative predictions at all, or do so only with the help of ancillary assumptions and by-hand data processing. Large language models, on the other hand (taking text-davinci-002 as an example), predict human acceptability ratings for these types of sentences with correlations of around <jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.9, and themselves constitute theories of language acquisition and representation; theories that instantiate exemplar-, input- and construction-based approaches, though only very loosely. Indeed, large language models succeed where these verbal (i.e., non-computational) linguistic theories fail, precisely because the latter insist – in the service of intuitive interpretability – on simple yet empirically inadequate (over)generalizations.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We review some of the main goals of theoretical linguistics in the tradition of Generative Grammar: description, evolvability and learnability. We evaluate recent efforts to address these goals, culminating with the Minimalist Program. We suggest that the most prominent versions of the Minimalist Program represent just one possible approach to addressing these goals, and not a particularly illuminating one in many respects. Some desirable features of an alternative minimalist theory are the dissociation between syntax and linear order, the emphasis on representational economy (i.e. Simpler Syntax) and an extra-grammatical account of non-local constraints (e.g. islands). We conclude with the outline of an alternative minimalist perspective that we believe points to more satisfactory accounts of the observed phenomena.
{"title":"On the goals of theoretical linguistics","authors":"Peter W. Culicover, Giuseppe Varaschin","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2003","url":null,"abstract":"We review some of the main goals of theoretical linguistics in the tradition of Generative Grammar: description, evolvability and learnability. We evaluate recent efforts to address these goals, culminating with the Minimalist Program. We suggest that the most prominent versions of the Minimalist Program represent just one possible approach to addressing these goals, and not a particularly illuminating one in many respects. Some desirable features of an alternative minimalist theory are the dissociation between syntax and linear order, the emphasis on representational economy (i.e. Simpler Syntax) and an extra-grammatical account of non-local constraints (e.g. islands). We conclude with the outline of an alternative minimalist perspective that we believe points to more satisfactory accounts of the observed phenomena.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, I briefly explore how theoretical linguistics and philosophy are interconnected. I focus on three possibilities, and argue that the fields are most harmonious when utilised in critical reflection of a particular target, a format officially adopted in Theoretical Linguistics since 2002.
{"title":"Theoretical Linguistics and the philosophy of linguistics","authors":"Ryan M. Nefdt","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2007","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I briefly explore how theoretical linguistics and philosophy are interconnected. I focus on three possibilities, and argue that the fields are most harmonious when utilised in critical reflection of a particular target, a format officially adopted in <jats:italic>Theoretical Linguistics</jats:italic> since 2002.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper first introduces the standard recipe for deriving quantity implicatures in the neo-Gricean framework. Then, it compares this pragmatic stance with the grammatical view that argues that scalar implicatures should be generated via an operator in syntax. After showing how the grammatical view can derive canonical scalar implicatures, motivations for this view are discussed which include embedded implicatures, obligatory scalar implicatures concerning the Hurford Constraint, and Free Choice inferences. This paper finally examines basic tenets of the grammatical view and points out three potential problems for this approach.
{"title":"Reflections on the grammatical view of scalar implicatures","authors":"Bo Xue, Haihua Pan","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2010","url":null,"abstract":"This paper first introduces the standard recipe for deriving quantity implicatures in the neo-Gricean framework. Then, it compares this pragmatic stance with the grammatical view that argues that scalar implicatures should be generated via an operator in syntax. After showing how the grammatical view can derive canonical scalar implicatures, motivations for this view are discussed which include embedded implicatures, obligatory scalar implicatures concerning the Hurford Constraint, and Free Choice inferences. This paper finally examines basic tenets of the grammatical view and points out three potential problems for this approach.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Linguistic typology is an all-embracing discipline central for inductively-based cross-linguistic generalizations, supported by language facts. Firsthand investigation of previously undescribed languages from regions known for their linguistic diversity helps expand our knowledge about the nature of language and the parameters of cross-linguistic variation. We explore the options of marking commands in a non-main clause and the issue of associative non-singular number in Yalaku and in Manambu (from Papua New Guinea), before turning to nominal aspect and non-propositional evidentiality (exemplified with Tariana and Jarawara, from Brazilian Amazonia). Previously undescribed languages help typologists expand and test our analytic frameworks
{"title":"Linguistic typology in action: how to know more","authors":"Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2001","url":null,"abstract":"Linguistic typology is an all-embracing discipline central for inductively-based cross-linguistic generalizations, supported by language facts. Firsthand investigation of previously undescribed languages from regions known for their linguistic diversity helps expand our knowledge about the nature of language and the parameters of cross-linguistic variation. We explore the options of marking commands in a non-main clause and the issue of associative non-singular number in Yalaku and in Manambu (from Papua New Guinea), before turning to nominal aspect and non-propositional evidentiality (exemplified with Tariana and Jarawara, from Brazilian Amazonia). Previously undescribed languages help typologists expand and test our analytic frameworks","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In a pioneer paper, Featherston (Featherston, Sam. 2007. Data in generative grammar: The stick and the carrot. Theoretical Linguistics 33. 269–318) advocated the use of better controlled data in theoretical linguistics. Despite diverging on many aspects, most syntactic theories are now testing their hypotheses with more data than a few linguists’ intuitions. I will examine the consequences of this empirical turn on two syntactic phenomena: long-distance dependencies (LDD) and ellipsis. In a series of recent experiments (Liu, Yingtong, Elodie Winckel, Anne Abeillé, Barbara Hemforth & Edward Gibson. 2022. Structural, functional and processing perspectives on linguistic islands effects. Annual Review of Linguistics 8. 495–525), most of the syntactic constraints (‘island constraints’) on LDD have shown less crosslinguistic variation and more cross-construction variation than previously thought. Corpus and experimental data have also shown elliptical clauses to be more flexible than expected under deletion-under-identity theories (Poppels, Till. 2022. Explaining ellipsis without identity. The Linguistic Review 39. 341–400). These are challenges for most syntactic theories, which call for taking discourse factors more seriously into account.
费瑟斯顿（Featherston, Sam.2007.生成语法中的数据：大棒与胡萝卜》。Theoretical Linguistics 33.269-318）主张在理论语言学中使用更好的控制数据。尽管在许多方面存在分歧，但大多数句法理论现在都在用更多的数据来检验自己的假设，而不是少数语言学家的直觉。我将探讨这一经验转向对两种句法现象的影响：长距离依存关系（LDD）和省略。在最近的一系列实验中（Liu, Yingtong, Elodie Winckel, Anne Abeillé, Barbara Hemforth & Edward Gibson.2022.语言岛效应的结构、功能和加工视角》。Annual Review of Linguistics 8.495-525），大多数关于 LDD 的句法限制（"岛限制"）显示出的跨语言变化比以前认为的要少，而跨结构变化则比以前认为的要多。语料库和实验数据还显示，椭圆句比删除-同位下理论预期的更灵活（Poppels, Till.2022.解释无同一性省略句。The Linguistic Review 39.341-400).这些都是对大多数句法理论的挑战，需要更认真地考虑话语因素。
{"title":"The empirical turn and its consequences for theoretical syntax","authors":"Anne Abeillé","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2011","url":null,"abstract":"In a pioneer paper, Featherston (Featherston, Sam. 2007. Data in generative grammar: The stick and the carrot. <jats:italic>Theoretical Linguistics</jats:italic> 33. 269–318) advocated the use of better controlled data in theoretical linguistics. Despite diverging on many aspects, most syntactic theories are now testing their hypotheses with more data than a few linguists’ intuitions. I will examine the consequences of this empirical turn on two syntactic phenomena: long-distance dependencies (LDD) and ellipsis. In a series of recent experiments (Liu, Yingtong, Elodie Winckel, Anne Abeillé, Barbara Hemforth & Edward Gibson. 2022. Structural, functional and processing perspectives on linguistic islands effects. <jats:italic>Annual Review of Linguistics</jats:italic> 8. 495–525), most of the syntactic constraints (‘island constraints’) on LDD have shown less crosslinguistic variation and more cross-construction variation than previously thought. Corpus and experimental data have also shown elliptical clauses to be more flexible than expected under deletion-under-identity theories (Poppels, Till. 2022. Explaining ellipsis without identity. <jats:italic>The Linguistic Review</jats:italic> 39. 341–400). These are challenges for most syntactic theories, which call for taking discourse factors more seriously into account.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
After more than sixty years of research, it is now widely accepted that sign languages are real languages, sharing key properties with spoken languages. This means that spoken and signed languages together comprise one natural language system in some sense. But that is not the whole story. Here I probe more deeply into the two systems, and focus on the differences between them -- differences that are pervasive, systematic, and predictable. Taking the existence of two identical articulators in sign languages, the two hands, as a case in point, I show how the physical channel of transmission profoundly influences linguistic structure. Further support for the characterization of language proposed here, different systems in the same faculty, comes from the newly emerging sign language of the Al-Sayyid Bedouins. The Whole Human Language can only be fully understood by admitting and elaborating two types of language in one language faculty, and by acknowledging the fundamental role of the body in determining language form.
{"title":"Speech and sign: the whole human language","authors":"Wendy Sandler","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2008","url":null,"abstract":"After more than sixty years of research, it is now widely accepted that sign languages are real languages, sharing key properties with spoken languages. This means that spoken and signed languages together comprise one natural language system in some sense. But that is not the whole story. Here I probe more deeply into the two systems, and focus on the differences between them -- differences that are pervasive, systematic, and predictable. Taking the existence of two identical articulators in sign languages, the two hands, as a case in point, I show how the physical channel of transmission profoundly influences linguistic structure. Further support for the characterization of language proposed here, different systems in the same faculty, comes from the newly emerging sign language of the Al-Sayyid Bedouins. The Whole Human Language can only be fully understood by admitting and elaborating two types of language in one language faculty, and by acknowledging the fundamental role of the body in determining language form.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Some recent publications have made the suggestion that Large Language Models are not just successful engineering tools but also good theories of human linguistic cognition. This note reviews methodological and empirical reasons to reject this suggestion out of hand.
{"title":"Large Language Models and theoretical linguistics","authors":"Danny Fox, Roni Katzir","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2005","url":null,"abstract":"Some recent publications have made the suggestion that Large Language Models are not just successful engineering tools but also good theories of human linguistic cognition. This note reviews methodological and empirical reasons to reject this suggestion out of hand.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Given the centrality of partial predictability to linguistic experience, it plays a strikingly minor role in theoretical linguistics. For many, partial predictability is to be set aside: the job of linguistic theory is to explain the infinite generative capacity of language and the semantic compositionality that accompanies it. For others, partial predictability is evidence that such an approach is missing the point. But surprisingly little attention is devoted to understanding how partial predictability actually works. We argue that linguistic theory should recognize partial predictability as a central design feature of human language, and propose a strategy for doing so.
{"title":"It’s time for a complete theory of partial predictability in language","authors":"Louise McNally, Olivier Bonami, Denis Paperno","doi":"10.1515/tl-2024-2006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2006","url":null,"abstract":"Given the centrality of partial predictability to linguistic experience, it plays a strikingly minor role in theoretical linguistics. For many, partial predictability is to be set aside: the job of linguistic theory is to explain the infinite generative capacity of language and the semantic compositionality that accompanies it. For others, partial predictability is evidence that such an approach is missing the point. But surprisingly little attention is devoted to understanding how partial predictability actually works. We argue that linguistic theory should recognize partial predictability as a central design feature of human language, and propose a strategy for doing so.","PeriodicalId":46148,"journal":{"name":"Theoretical Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141550510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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