A statistical-physics approach to language acquisition and language change

The aim of this paper is to explain why Statistical Physics can help unders tanding two related linguistic questions. The first question is how to mode l first language acquisition by a child. The second question is how languag e change proceeds in time. Our approach is based on a Gibbsian model for the interface between syntax and prosody. We also present a simulated annealing model of language acquis ition, which extends the Triggering Learning Algorithm recently introduced in the linguistic literature.