Sentence Comprehension : The Integration of Habits and Rules

by David J. Townsend and Thomas G. Bever

• ISBN13: 9780262700801
• ISBN10: 0262700808
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: MIT PRESS

Summary

Using sentence comprehension as a case study for all of cognitive science, David Townsend and Thomas Bever offer an integration of two major approaches, the symbolic-computational and the associative-connectionist. The symbolic-computational approach emphasizes the formal manipulation of symbols that underlies creative aspects of language behavior. The associative-connectionist approach captures the intuition that most behaviors consist of accumulated habits. The authors argue that the sentence is the natural level at which associative and symbolic information merge during comprehension. The authors develop and support an analysis-by-synthesis model that integrates associative and symbolic information in sentence comprehension. This integration resolves problems each approach faces when considered independently. The authors review classic and contemporary symbolic and associative theories of sentence comprehension, and show how recent developments in syntactic theory fit well with the integrated analysis-by-synthesis model. They offer analytic, experimental, and neurological evidence for their model and discuss its implications for broader issues in cognitive science, including the logical necessity of an integration of symbolic and connectionist approaches in the field.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
The Sentence as a Case Study in Cognitive Science	1	(10)
The Sentence Is a Natural Level of Linguistic Representation	2	(3)
The Integration of Habits and Symbols	5	(6)
Classical Evidence for the Sentence	11	(34)
Early Ideas about the Sentence	11	(2)
Banishment of the Sentence	13	(7)
Revival of the Sentence	20	(1)
Unlinking Knowledge and Behavior	20	(17)
The Search for a Behaviorally Relevant Grammar	37	(4)
The Reemergence of Associationism	41	(2)
Conclusion: The Mystery of Structure	43	(2)
What Every Psychologist Should Know about Grammar	45	(38)
The Architecture of Syntax	46	(1)
Constant Features of Syntactic Structures	47	(5)
Arguments, Movement, and Derivations	52	(10)
The Architectures Relating Meaning and Syntax	62	(19)
Conclusion and Implications	81	(2)
Contemporary Models of Sentence Comprehension	83	(74)
The Problem of Comprehension	83	(3)
Structural Models	86	(34)
Statistical Models	120	(26)
Grains of Truth	146	(4)
Conclusion: Implications for an Integrated Model	150	(7)
Embedding the Grammar in a Comprehension Model	157	(30)
Syntactic Derivations and Probabilistic Information in Comprehension	157	(3)
Analysis by Synthesis	160	(7)
A Case Study: The Passive	167	(5)
Pseudosyntax, Real Syntax, and the Grain Problem	172	(8)
Some Basic Facts Consistent with the Model	180	(4)
Conclusion: The Heightened Clarity of Grammatical Speech	184	(3)
Basic Evidence for the Model	187	(60)
Pseudosyntax	187	(16)
Meaning	203	(6)
Real Syntax	209	(17)
Introspection and Sentence Processing	226	(19)
Conclusion	245	(2)
Canonical Sentence Templates	247	(70)
Reduced Relative Clauses out of Context	248	(25)
Reduced Relative Clauses in Context	273	(13)
Full Relative Clauses	286	(7)
Direct-Object/Sentential Complement	293	(7)
Sentential Complement/Relative Clause	300	(5)
Direct Object/Subject	305	(7)
Conjoined Noun Phrase/Coordinate Clause	312	(1)
Interactions of Complex Subcategorizations	313	(3)
Conclusion	316	(1)
Conceptual Knowledge, Modularity, and Discourse	317	(44)
Parallel Syntactic and Semantic Analyses	317	(7)
Intersentential Contexts	324	(11)
Sentence-Internal Contexts and Connectives	335	(24)
Conclusion: Representations, Discourses, and Modules	359	(2)
Relation to Other Systems of Language Use	361	(38)
Acquisition and Comprehension	361	(16)
Neurological Evidence for the Model	377	(20)
Conclusion	397	(2)
Implications	399	(10)
Summary	399	(4)
Cognitive Architecture, the Grain Problem, and Consciousness	403	(6)
References	409	(24)
Author Index	433	(4)
Subject Index	437