CONNECTIONIST MODELS AND LINGUISTIC THEORY - INVESTIGATIONS OF STRESSSYSTEMS IN LANGUAGE

We question the widespread assumption that linguistic theory should gu ide the formulation of mechanistic accounts of human language processi ng. We develop a pseudo-linguistic theory for the domain of linguistic stress, based on observation of the learning behavior of a perceptron exposed to a variety of stress patterns. There are significant simila rities between our analysis of perceptron stress learning and metrical phonology, the linguistic theory of human stress. Both approaches att empt to identify salient characteristics of the stress systems under e xamination without reference to the workings of the underlying process or. Our theory and computer simulations exhibit some strikingly sugges tive correspondences with metrical theory. We show, however, that our high-level pseudo-linguistic account bears no causal relation to proce ssing in the perceptron, and provides little insight into the nature o f this processing. Because of the persuasive similarities between the nature of our theory and linguistic theorizing, we suggest that lingui stic theory may be in much the same position. Contrary to the usual as sumption, it may not provide useful guidance in attempts to identify p rocessing mechanisms underlying human language.