Comments on: Talkin’ ’bout my G-g-g-generator http://jwherring.com/languagemodule/2008/06/27/talkin-bout-my-g-g-g-generator/ Computational Linguistics Weblog Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:19:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Joshua http://jwherring.com/languagemodule/2008/06/27/talkin-bout-my-g-g-g-generator/#comment-4 Joshua Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:18:57 +0000 http://jwherring.com/languagemodule/?p=13#comment-4 Checking the post, I find I cleverly corrected the spelling in order to make it look like you are complaining about nothing. As for Carnie's justification for basing Syntax on intuition, I refer you to his book, which you should now purchase... ... hehe, OK, it's the same one I always give Mark. Namely that pretty much any psychological phenomenon is studied with reference to intuitions. You give a subject a stimulus and ask him (Carnie would, politically correctly, say "her") what his impression is, record this and draw conclusions based on it. The line I appreciated was this one: "It is replicable under strictly controlled experimental conditions (these conditions are rarely applied, but the validity of the task is well-established)." I think there's probably more to say there about why the conditions are rarely applied, but it's good of him to admit that that's the case. There's a lot more he could have said here, which is the reason I took up the modeling bit rather than the intuitions bit. After having already written a bunch about UG, I didn't feel like writing a whole bunch more about intuitions. Though I should ... and will eventually. Checking the post, I find I cleverly corrected the spelling in order to make it look like you are complaining about nothing.

As for Carnie’s justification for basing Syntax on intuition, I refer you to his book, which you should now purchase…

… hehe, OK, it’s the same one I always give Mark. Namely that pretty much any psychological phenomenon is studied with reference to intuitions. You give a subject a stimulus and ask him (Carnie would, politically correctly, say “her”) what his impression is, record this and draw conclusions based on it. The line I appreciated was this one:

“It is replicable under strictly controlled experimental conditions (these conditions are rarely applied, but the validity of the task is well-established).”

I think there’s probably more to say there about why the conditions are rarely applied, but it’s good of him to admit that that’s the case. There’s a lot more he could have said here, which is the reason I took up the modeling bit rather than the intuitions bit. After having already written a bunch about UG, I didn’t feel like writing a whole bunch more about intuitions. Though I should … and will eventually.

]]> By: Noah http://jwherring.com/languagemodule/2008/06/27/talkin-bout-my-g-g-g-generator/#comment-3 Noah Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:23:16 +0000 http://jwherring.com/languagemodule/?p=13#comment-3 One point, one question. Point: It's 'risible', not 'riseable'. Question: What's Carnie's justification/explanation for basing Syntax on intuitions? One point, one question.

Point: It’s ‘risible’, not ‘riseable’.

Question: What’s Carnie’s justification/explanation for basing Syntax on intuitions?

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