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On Arguments Against the Empirical Adequacy of Finite State Grammar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Richard Daly
Richard Daly*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Abstract

In the first part of this paper, two arguments, one by Chomsky, and one by Bar-Hillel and Shamir, are examined in detail and rejected. Both arguments purport to show that the structure of English precludes its having a finite state grammar which correctly enumerates just the well formed sentences of English.

In the latter part of the paper I consider the problem of supporting claims about the structure and properties of a natural language when no grammar for the language has yet been accepted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 461 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

*

This article is the third chapter of the book, Applications of the Mathematical Theory of Linguistics, to be published by Mouton and Company, The Hague (Janus Linguarum series).

References

REFERENCES

[1] Bar-Hillel, Y. and Shamir, E. “Finite State Languages.” The Bulletin of the Research Council of Israel 8F (1960): 155–166. Reprinted in Bar-Hillel, Y., Language and Information. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1964: 87–98.Google Scholar
[2] Chomsky, N. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1965.Google Scholar
[3] Chomsky, N. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Chomsky, N. “Three Models for the Description of Language.” I.R.E. Transactions on Information Theory. IT-2/3 (1956): 113–124. Reprinted with corrections in Readings in Mathematical Psychology, vol. 2. Edited by R. D. Luce, R. R. Bush, and E. Galanter. New York: John Wiley, 1965.Google Scholar
[5] Ginsburg, S. The Mathematical Theory of Context Free Languages. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.Google Scholar
[6] Postal, P. “Limitations of Phrase Structure Grammar.” The Structure of Language. Edited by Fodor, J. A. and Katz, J. J. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1964: 137–154.Google Scholar