Levels: Descriptive, Explanatory, and Ontological

Descriptive and Explanatory Markedness

The wide empirical coverage of two number features, [±singular] and [±augmented], is used to show that (Greenbergian) category-internal markedness, (geometric) feature markedness, and value markedness are, respectively, epiphenomenal, untenable, and too simplistically formulated to be currently evaluated.

Integrating Explanatory and Descriptive Learning in ILP

A learning framework that combines the two frameworks of explanatory and descriptive In ­ ductive Logic Programming (ILP) is presented. The induced hypotheses in this framework are pairs of the form (T, IC) where T is a defi­ nite clausal theory and IC is a set of integrity constraints. The two components allow us to combine complementary information from the same data by applying both explanat...

The Explanatory Power of Descriptive Norms

Descriptive theories, explanatory theories, and Basic Linguistic Theory

than the sorts of grammars associated with generative grammar. It is not clear, in particular, that speakers make any generalizations across phrasal categories and hence it is not clear that there is any need for notions like ‘head’, ‘complement’, ‘adjunct’, or ‘specifier’. Again, the claim of this Descriptive theories and explanatory theories 221 paper is that the sort of grammars that use bas...

Modelling melodic discrimination tests: Descriptive and explanatory approaches

Melodic discrimination tests have been used for many years to assess individual differences in musical abilities. These tests are usually analysed using classical test theory. However, classical test theory is not well-suited for optimising test efficiency or for investigating construct validity. This paper addresses this problem by applying modern item response modelling techniques to three me...