An Automated Learner for Phonology and Morphology

Linguists of many persuasions take a realist view of linguistic theory as it relates to learning: language learners, in infancy and childhood, are assumed to come equipped with whatever principles of linguistic structure and of language learning are biologically determined in our species. They encounter and process numerous input data, provided essentially at random, from the ambient language. In a few years, this processing results in mental structures—grammar, phonology, lexicon—of extraordinary scope and intricacy. Ideally, linguists seek general principles of language that guide children in their search, and sometimes they attempt to determine the particular algorithms and strategies that children might be using.