tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916168470376937425.post4005611344210127408..comments2024-03-06T06:27:15.764-08:00Comments on Earning My Turns: "These can be aptly compared with the challenges, problems, and insights of particle physics"Fernando Pereirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05849361902113771573noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916168470376937425.post-19430532634501562352008-06-30T20:36:00.000-07:002008-06-30T20:36:00.000-07:00I'm sometimes asked by for specific examples of li...I'm sometimes asked by for specific examples of linguistic insights that statistical methods provide. <BR/><BR/>The story I currently tell is that statistics is about inference, and statistical methods have given us a deeper understanding of inferential processes involving language, such as parsing and language acquisition.<BR/><BR/>Maybe this is enough. But I'd like to offer something more immediate and compelling.<BR/><BR/>In the early days of generative grammar Chomsky presented a number of now-famous examples that followed from the theory he was developing. You might not agree with or even understand the theory, but it was hard not to accept that e.g. in "John promised/persuaded Bill to shave himself" the referent of "himself" depends on the choice of verb.<BR/><BR/>Is there anything similarly compelling that statistical research on language can offer? (Saying that speech recognizers only work because they use statistical methods really doesn't cut it).Mark Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05951121491616376798noreply@blogger.com