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The Subset Principle in syntax: costs of compliance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2005

JANET DEAN FODOR  and
WILLIAM GREGORY SAKAS
JANET DEAN FODOR
Affiliation:
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
WILLIAM GREGORY SAKAS
Affiliation:
Hunter College and The Graduate Center City University of New York
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Abstract

Following Hale & Reiss' paper on the Subset Principle (SP) in phonology, we draw attention here to some unsolved problems in the application of SP to syntax acquisition. While noting connections to formal results in computational linguistics, our focus is on how SP could be implemented in a way that is both linguistically well-grounded and psychologically feasible. We concentrate on incremental learning (with no memory for past inputs), which is now widely assumed in psycholinguistics. However, in investigating its interactions with SP, we uncover the rather startling fact that incremental learning and SP are incompatible, given other standard assumptions. We set out some ideas for ways in which they might be reconciled. Some seem more promising than others, but all appear to carry severe costs in terms of computational load, learning speed or memory resources. The penalty for disobeying SP has long been understood. In future language acquisition research it will be important to address the costs of obeying SP.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , November 2005 , pp. 513 - 569
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

For their helpful advice and feedback we are grateful to two JL referees, and the audience at the 2004 Midwest Computational Linguistics Colloquium at the University of Indiana. This research was supported in part by grants 65398-00-34, 66443-00-35 and 66680-00-35 from the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York.