Parameters

what are 3 overaching parameterse in syntax learning

headedness

movement

null subject

what is the principles and parameters school of thought

dated but influential theory of syntax where child ‘flip yes/no switches’ to get correct syntax

what are principles

things common to all languages

what are parameters

language-specific binary choices 

what is langauge in the principles and parameters view

langauge is principles + a series of parameter settings

what is another word for high-level syntactic phenomena

parameters

what is an issue with there being “swithces” and what is more likely

the flip to switch doesn’t nessessary pre-exist, patterns we call parameters are probably emergent 

what is V2

the tensed verb is the 2nd consitituent in linear order

what does pronouncing pronomial subjects (null subject) mean

not having to say the pronoun in a sentance

(if the verb in inflected, or like command sentances in english(

what is “Mr.Tan went where” an example of

an echo question

what kind of model is a variational learner and what does it imply

parameter model, grammar is there it just has to be selected

what is the variational learner based on  and how does it work 

linear reward-penalty models of classic math psych

learns acquire grammar by rewarding parameters that parse the input and penalizing those that done, until adventurally one wins 

what kind of learning does the variational learning use and describe it

reinforcement learning

patterns/behaviors that receive positive feedback increase
patterns/behaviors that receive negative feedback decrease 

what is classical conditioning, give an example

repeatedly present an uncondition stimulus with a neutral stimulus, the neutral stimulus eventually becomes conditioned (pavlov’s dog)

in classical conditioning when is the neutral stimulus provided

simultaneously or before hand

what is operant conditioning and descibe it, give an example

reward/punishment conditioning

behavior associated with reward is strengthened, behavior associated with punishment is weakened (rats turning left and right) 

what are the 2 concepts of variational learning

variation vs transformation

what do variation and transformation look the same and differ for (+ example)

both account for population level change and look at same aggregate
difference is variation is grammatical competition
(variational= peppered moths alwayed had black and white versions, and adventurally the black ones got more populated.
transformational= peppered moths were white and as a whole gradually became black going through all the shades of gray*) [incorrect]

g1=p and g2=q | write the 2 equations for g1 parsing the info correctly

p’=p+γq 
q’=q-γq

what does γ stand for in the variational learning input

the reward

as one grammar is rewarded the other one(s) is…

punished

what is a problem with ambiguity and choosing the correct parsing grammar

many phrases are correct for multiple “switches”

what affects the learning rate of what grammar parses the info

the proportion of inputs which are informative 

why does v2 have a particulary hard ambiguity problem

most V2 sentances are consistant with SVO and (X)VSO, there is no umambiguious evidence

what is a null subject

being able to drop the pronoun/name (if verb is inflected, it’s a command, ect)

where does evidence against null subjects come from (in eng)

expletive sentences (it is raining, there are no cats)