Cognitive Modeling Approaches to Language Comprehension Using Construction Grammar

This paper examines the relationship between modeling human sentence comprehension using cognitive architectures and approaches to linguistic knowledge representation using construction grammars. We review multiple computational models of language understanding that vary in their use of construction grammar and cognitive architectures. We present a case study: Lucia, that uses Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG) within the Soar cognitive architecture to comprehend language used to instruct an embodied agent. We also examine the tradeoffs between alternative approaches to representing and accessing linguistic knowledge within a cognitive architecture and suggest future research.