 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Back to computer language acquisition
Language acquisition is a unique human phenomenon. Stephen Crain and Diane Lillo-Martin, in their book An Introduction to Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition list some facts that underlie what happens when children acquire language: (1) without special training or carefully sequenced language input, every normal child acquires a natural language. This property of acquisition is called the universality of language; (2) every child in every linguistic community acquires the language of that community. They all learn the same grammar; (3) in communities where more than one language is spoken, children acquire all of the languages of the community; (4) every language is learned with equal ease; (5) language acquisition is very rapid: almost all the complexities of language are mastered by children before they begin school, by age 3 or 4; (6) in language development there is a sequence: children learning the same language all follow an almost identical pattern; (7) language development is internally driven. How about computer language acquisition? Jenny R. Saffran, Ann Senghas and John Trueswell, in their article The Acquisition of Language by Children (06.11.2001, in www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/231498898v1) say that "despite layers of complexity, each currently beyond the reach of modern computers, young children readily solve the linguistic puzzles facing them, even surpassing their input when it lacks the expected structure". Since they clearly discard computers language acquisition saying that it is beyond their reach, we must exercise our imagination. In an article called The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era, Vernor Vinge suggests that "giving developing brains access to complex simulated neural structures might be very interesting to the people who study how the embryonic brain develops". He goes further by saying that "such experiments might produce animals with additional sense paths and interesting intellectual abilities". Vinge also hopes that a copy of the brain could be made while the original is alive, and all the components in it are completely linked with the same components of the original - so they essentially form a single brain. "When the original brain subsequently dies and the original biological components cease to exist, the copy takes over and continues as before". This copy must be imprinted in a computer memory, a feat
that can be imagined for a near future. If a non-destructive
and non-invasive method of copying an infant´s brain
could be implemented, computers could have the basic structure
to acquire language, although the "world knowledge"
would be missing: the child acquires the language of its
community, so some kind of "computer community"
would have to be created, and serious interaction problems
would have to be solved. Related news:
|
|
