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UID:/NewsandEvents/Archives/2011/newsitem/4057/1-S
 eptember-2011-Computational-Linguistics-Seminar-Su
 zanne-Stevenson
DTSTAMP:20110831T000000
SUMMARY:Computational Linguistics Seminar, Suzanne
  Stevenson
ATTENDEE;ROLE=Speaker:Suzanne Stevenson (Toronto)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20110901T150000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20110901T000000
LOCATION:Room D1.113, Science Park 904, Amsterdam
DESCRIPTION:Early verb learning in children seems 
 an almost miraculous feat. In learning a verb, chi
 ldren must learn both the basic meaning of the eve
 nt ("falling" or "eating"), as well as the allowab
 le structures in their language for correctly comm
 unicating the participants in that event ("The gla
 ss fell", but not "She fell the glass"). Moreover,
  given the sparsity of evidence, children must be 
 able to abstract away from specific usages they ob
 serve in order to use their knowledge of verbs pro
 ductively. Finally, children must accomplish all t
 his in the face of a high degree of variability am
 ong verbs, along with much noise and uncertainty i
 n the input data, and with no explicit teaching. D
 o children require innate knowledge of language to
  accomplish this, or are general cognitive learnin
 g mechanisms sufficient to the task? We have devel
 oped various computational models of verb learning
  using unsupervised clustering over simple statist
 ical properties of verb usages. Our findings suppo
 rt the claim that general learning mechanisms are 
 able to acquire abstract knowledge of verbs and to
  generalize that knowledge to novel verbs and situ
 ations.  This is joint work with Paola Merlo, Afra
  Alishahi, and Chris Parisien.  For more informati
 on and abstracts, see https://www.illc.uva.nl/LaCo
 /CLS/.
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:\n        <p>Early ve
 rb learning in children seems an almost miraculous
 \n        feat. In learning a verb, children must 
 learn both the basic\n        meaning of the event
  (&quot;falling&quot; or\n        &quot;eating&quo
 t;), as well as the allowable structures in\n     
    their language for correctly communicating the 
 participants in\n        that event (&quot;The gla
 ss fell&quot;, but not &quot;She fell\n        the
  glass&quot;). Moreover, given the sparsity of evi
 dence,\n        children must be able to abstract 
 away from specific usages\n        they observe in
  order to use their knowledge of verbs\n        pr
 oductively. Finally, children must accomplish all 
 this in\n        the face of a high degree of vari
 ability among verbs, along\n        with much nois
 e and uncertainty in the input data, and with no\n
         explicit teaching. Do children require inn
 ate knowledge of\n        language to accomplish t
 his, or are general cognitive learning\n        me
 chanisms sufficient to the task? We have developed
  various\n        computational models of verb lea
 rning using unsupervised\n        clustering over 
 simple statistical properties of verb\n        usa
 ges. Our findings support the claim that general l
 earning\n        mechanisms are able to acquire ab
 stract knowledge of verbs and\n        to generali
 ze that knowledge to novel verbs and situations.</
 p>\n        <p>This is joint work with Paola Merlo
 , Afra Alishahi, and\n        Chris Parisien.</p>\
 n    \n        <p>For more information and abstrac
 ts, see\n        <a target="_blank" href="https://
 www.illc.uva.nl/LaCo/CLS/">https://www.illc.uva.nl
 /LaCo/CLS/</a>.</p>\n    
URL:/NewsandEvents/Archives/2011/newsitem/4057/1-S
 eptember-2011-Computational-Linguistics-Seminar-Su
 zanne-Stevenson
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