Dissertation Improvement Grant: Domain Specificity in Learning Phonology

语言学和认知科学研究人员面临的一个基本问题是，儿童学习语言的能力是由于专门的认知模块还是由于更普遍的学习能力。这项研究验证了一个强有力的假设，即存在专门的语言学习认知模块。具体来说，这项研究的目标是找到支持或反对这种说法的证据，即存在一个专门的模块来学习语言中的声音模式。这种说法是基于计算的考虑，它揭示了语言将语音组合成单词的方式（音位学）与语言将单词组合成句子的方式（语法）有着根本的不同。pi利用这种计算理解开发了一系列人工语言学习实验，以两种方式研究学习音韵学的模块是如何专业化的。首先，将已证实的声音模式的可学习性与最小差异但未经证实的声音模式的可学习性进行比较。从理论上讲，这两种模式之间唯一已知的区别是它们的计算复杂性。第二个系列的实验检验了自然语言的语法模式的可学习性，而不是音韵学模式。这两个系列实验的一个显著特征是，要测试的特定模式在理论计算机科学和理论语言学中都得到了很好的理解。这项研究的结果将有助于更好地理解这里所研究的计算边界的心理现实。反过来，这将提供一个更深入的理解是什么构成了一个可能的语音模式，这种模式是如何学习的，以及一般的第一语言习得。研究结果还直接解决了人类语言学习是特定领域还是通用领域的程度。语言处理的研究以及语言和语言障碍的临床研究也可能受益于这项调查。

A fundamental question facing researchers in linguistics and cognitive science is whether children's ability to learn language is due to specialized cognitive modules or to more general learning capacities. This research tests a strong version of the hypothesis that specialized cognitive modules for language learning exist.Specifically, the goal of this research is to find evidence for or against the claim that a specialized module is present for learning how sounds pattern in languages. This claim is grounded by computational considerations, which reveal that the way languages combine speech sounds to make words (phonology) is fundamentally different from the way languages combine words to make sentences (syntax).The PIs exploit this computational understanding to develop a series of artificial language learning experiments that investigate how specialized the module for learning phonology is in two ways. First, the learnability of an attested sound pattern is compared with the learnability of a minimally different, but unattested, sound pattern. Theoretically, the only known difference between these two patterns is their computational complexity. A second series of experiments examines the learnability of patterns only found in the syntax, but not the phonology, of natural languages. A distinguishing feature of both series of experiments is that the specific patterns to be tested are well understood both in theoretical computer science and in theoretical linguistics.The results of this research will lead to a better understanding of the psychological reality of the computational boundaries investigated here. This in turn will provide a deeper understanding of what constitutes a possible phonological pattern, how such patterns are learned, and first language acquisition in general. The results also directly address the extent to which human language learning is domain-specific or domain-general. Studies of language processing and clinical research into speech and language disorders may also benefit from this investigation.