Probabilistic linguistics / edited by Rens Bod, Jennifer Hay, and Stefanie Jannedy.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bod, Rens, 1965-

Hay, Jennifer.

Jannedy, Stefanie.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Linguistic analysis (Linguistics).

Linguistics--Statistical methods.

Linguistics.

Probabilities.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

xii, 451 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2003]

Summary:

For the past forty years, linguistics has been dominated by the idea that language is categorical and linguistic competence discrete. It has become increasingly clear, however, that many levels of representation, from phonemes to sentence structure, show probabilistic properties, as does the language faculty. Probabilistic linguistics conceptualizes categories as distributions and views knowledge of language not as a minimal set of categorical constraints but as a set of gradient rules that may be characterized by a statistical distribution. Whereas categorical approaches focus on the endpoints of distributions of linguistic phenomena, probabilistic approaches focus on the gradient middle ground. Probabilistic linguistics integrates all the progress made by linguistics thus far with a probabilistic perspective. This book presents a comprehensive introduction to probabilistic approaches to linguistic inquiry. It covers the application of probabilistic techniques to phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics. It also includes a tutorial on elementary probability theory and probabilistic grammars.

Contents:

Chapter 2 Introduction to Elementary Probability Theory and Formal Stochastic Language Theory / Rens Bod 11

Chapter 3 Probabilistic Modeling in Psycholinguistics: Linguistic Comprehension and Production / Dan Jurafsky 39

Chapter 4 Probabilistic Sociolinguistics: Beyond Variable Rules / Norma Mendoza-Denton, Jennifer Hay, Stefanie Jannedy 97

Chapter 5 Probability in Language Change / Kie Zuraw 139

Chapter 6 Probabilistic Phonology: Discrimination and Robustness / Janet B. Pierrehumbert 177

Chapter 7 Probabilistic Approaches to Morphology / R. Harald Baayen 229

Chapter 8 Probabilistic Syntax / Christopher D. Manning 289

Chapter 9 Probabilistic Approaches to Semantics / Ariel Cohen 343.

Notes:

"... originated as a symposium on 'Probability theory in linguistics' held in Washington, D.C. as part of the Linguistic Society of America meeting in January 2001"--Preface.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [389]-436) and indexes.

ISBN:

0262025361

0262523388

OCLC:

50424204