Last update:
9 February 2010
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Analogical ModelingAn exemplar-based approach to language
2002. x, 417 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound
– In stock
978 90 272 2362 3 / EUR 125.00 978 1 58811 302 3 / USD 188.00
e-Book
– Available from e-book platforms
Analogical Modeling (AM) is an exemplar-based general theory of description that uses both neighbors and non-neighbors (under certain well-defined conditions of homogeneity) to predict language behavior. This book provides a basic introduction to AM, compares the theory with nearest-neighbor approaches, and discusses the most recent advances in the theory, including psycholinguistic evidence, applications to specific languages, the problem of categorization, and how AM relates to alternative approaches of language description (such as instance families, neural nets, connectionism, and optimality theory). The book closes with a thorough examination of the problem of the exponential explosion, an inherent difficulty in AM (and in fact all theories of language description). Quantum computing (based on quantum mechanics with its inherent simultaneity and reversibility) provides a precise and natural solution to the exponential explosion in AM. Finally, an extensive appendix provides three tutorials for running the AM computer program (available online).
Table of contents
“It used to be a cliche that language users produce and understand new utterances on the basis of analogies they construct with previous linguistic experiences. A formal articulation of the notion of analogy was, however, lacking for a long time. Skousen's explicit formulation of analogy has triggered a resurgence of interest in analogy-based language processing. This book does a wonderful job of combining a tutorial on analogical modeling with a state-of-the-art overview of the field. It should be read by all who are interested in the interface between language, cognition, and
computation.” Rens Bod, University of Amsterdam
“Analogy — one of the most intuitive but elusive processes in language learning and change is here confronted directly, given a formal implementation and shown to be the force behind rule-like
“The latest word on analogical modeling. This volume clearly distinguishes AM from both connectionism and symbolic rule systems.”
“This book succeeds extremely well in providing the reader with a tutorial on analogical modeling (AM) and the state-of-the art of the field, and is especially interesting for computational linguists.”
Subject classification |
Linguistics