Linguistic Attractors
The cognitive dynamics of language acquisition and change
The interdisciplinary linguistic attractor model portrays language processing as linked sequences of fractal sets, and examines the changing dynamics of such sets for individuals as well as the speech community they comprise. Its motivation stems from human anatomic constraints and several artificial neural network approaches. It uses general computation theory to: (1) demonstrate the capacity of Cantor-like fractal sets to perform as Turing Machines; (2) better distinguish between models that simply match outputs (emulation) and models that match both outputs and internal dynamics (simulation); and (3) relate language processing to essential computation steps executed in parallel. Measure and information theory highlight the key variables driving linguistic dynamics, while catastrophe and game theory help predict the possible topologies of language change.
It introduces techniques to isolate and measure attractors, and to interpret their stability and relative content within a system. Important results include the capability to distinguish the sequence of related sound changes, and to make point-to-point comparisons of different texts using common metrics. Other techniques allow quantifiable ambiguity landscapes illustrating the forces that propel different languages in different directions.
[Human Cognitive Processing, 2] 1999. xv, 375 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008
Published online on 21 October 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
-
Preface | p. ix
-
Introduction: Abstractions, Universals, Systems and Attractors | p. 1
-
1. Human Architecture: Physical Constraints ans Special Accomodations | p. 17
-
2. Possible Neutral Network Implemantations: General Network Properties and Requirements for Computation | p. 47
-
3. Representations | p. 87
-
4. Attractor Dynamics on Semantic Fields | p. 105
-
5. Towards an Attractor Grammar | p. 137
-
6. The Dynamics of Language Change: Beowulf, the Tatian, and German Biblical Texts | p. 205
-
-
Index | p. 353
Cited by (22)
Cited by 22 other publications
Gu, Yulan
He, Xiang, Dandan Zhou & Xiaofei Zhang
Namasivayam, Aravind Kumar, Deirdre Coleman, Aisling O’Dwyer & Pascal van Lieshout
Elahi Shirvan, Majid & Nahid Talebzadeh
Dickey, Stephen M.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane
2017. Chapter 1. Complexity Theory. In Complexity Theory and Language Development [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 48], ► pp. 11 ff.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane
2017. Chapter 1. Complexity theory. In Complexity Theory and Language Development [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 48],
Larsen-Freeman, Diane
Larsen‐Freeman, Diane
Nowak, Iga & Giosuè Baggio
Bybee, Joan & Clay Beckner
Wittek, Peter, Sandor Daranyi, Efstratios Kontopoulos, Theodoros Moysiadis & Ioannis Kompatsiaris
Wedel, Andrew
Andres, Jan
Clay Beckner, Richard Blythe, Joan Bybee, Morten H. Christiansen, William Croft, Nick C. Ellis, John Holland, Jinyun Ke, Diane Larsen‐Freeman & Tom Schoenemann
DE BOT, KEES
ELLIS, NICK C.
Cooper, David L.
Franceschini, Rita
Longa, Víctor M.
2004. A nonlinear approach to translation. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 16:2 ► pp. 201 ff.
Dewaele, Jean-Marc
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General