Linguistic Attractors
The cognitive dynamics of language acquisition and change
Author
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
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Preface | p. ix
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Introduction: Abstractions, Universals, Systems and Attractors | p. 1
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1. Human Architecture: Physical Constraints ans Special Accomodations | p. 17
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2. Possible Neutral Network Implemantations: General Network Properties and Requirements for Computation | p. 47
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3. Representations | p. 87
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4. Attractor Dynamics on Semantic Fields | p. 105
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5. Towards an Attractor Grammar | p. 137
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6. The Dynamics of Language Change: Beowulf, the Tatian, and German Biblical Texts | p. 205
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Index | p. 353
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2015. Emergence at the Cross-Linguistic Level. In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ► pp. 181 ff.
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2006. Broca's arrow: Evolution, prediction, and language in the brain. The Anatomical Record Part B: The New Anatomist 289B:1 ► pp. 9 ff.
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2008. Introduction: Second Language Development as a Dynamic Process. The Modern Language Journal 92:2 ► pp. 166 ff.
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2002. Variation, chaos et système en interlangue française. Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère :17 ► pp. 143 ff.
Dickey, Stephen M.
2017. Prefixation in the Rise of Slavic Aspect. In The role of prefixes in the formation of aspectuality [Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici, 39], ► pp. 85 ff.
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2018. Exploring the Fluctuations of Foreign Language Enjoyment in Conversation: An Idiodynamic Perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 47:1 ► pp. 21 ff.
ELLIS, NICK C.
2008. The Dynamics of Second Language Emergence: Cycles of Language Use, Language Change, and Language Acquisition. The Modern Language Journal 92:2 ► pp. 232 ff.
Gu, Yulan
2023. An introduction to retrodictive qualitative modeling as an emerging method on affective variables in SLA research. Frontiers in Psychology 14
He, Xiang, Dandan Zhou & Xiaofei Zhang
2021. An Empirical Study on Chinese University Students’ English Language Classroom Anxiety With the Idiodynamic Approach. SAGE Open 11:3 ► pp. 215824402110376 ff.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane
2012. Chaos/Complexity Theory for Second Language Acquisition. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
2017. Chapter 1. Complexity Theory. In Complexity Theory and Language Development [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 48], ► pp. 11 ff.
2017. Chapter 1. Complexity theory. In Complexity Theory and Language Development [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 48],
2018. Resonances: Second Language Development and Language Planning and Policy from a Complexity Theory Perspective. In Language Policy and Language Acquisition Planning [Language Policy, 15], ► pp. 203 ff.
Longa, Víctor M.
2004. A nonlinear approach to translation. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 16:2 ► pp. 201 ff.
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2020. Speech Sound Disorders in Children: An Articulatory Phonology Perspective. Frontiers in Psychology 10
Nowak, Iga & Giosuè Baggio
2016. The emergence of word order and morphology in compositional languages via multigenerational signaling games. Journal of Language Evolution 1:2 ► pp. 137 ff.
Wedel, Andrew
2011. Self-Organization in Phonology. In The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, ► pp. 1 ff.
Wittek, Peter, Sandor Daranyi, Efstratios Kontopoulos, Theodoros Moysiadis & Ioannis Kompatsiaris
2015. 2015 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), ► pp. 1 ff.
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General