Re:Modern language models refute Chomsky’s approach to language
by adastra22 on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @02:56PM
(#36315077)
It is far, far more likely that the way humans learn language resembles LLMs than it does Chomsky’s model, however.
Biology is intrinsically local. For Chomsky’s model of language instinct to work, it would have to reduce down to some sort of embryonic developmental process consisting of entirely of local gene-activated steps over the years it takes for a human child to begin speaking grammatical sentences. This is in direct contrast to most examples of human instinct, which disappear very quickly as the brain develops.
Really the main advantage that Chomsky’s ideas had is that no one could imagine how something simpler could possibly result in linguistic understanding. But large language models demonstrate that no, actually one simple learning algorithm is perfectly sufficient. So why evoke something more complex?
Biology is intrinsically local. For Chomsky’s model of language instinct to work, it would have to reduce down to some sort of embryonic developmental process consisting of entirely of local gene-activated steps over the years it takes for a human child to begin speaking grammatical sentences. This is in direct contrast to most examples of human instinct, which disappear very quickly as the brain develops.
Really the main advantage that Chomsky’s ideas had is that no one could imagine how something simpler could possibly result in linguistic understanding. But large language models demonstrate that no, actually one simple learning algorithm is perfectly sufficient. So why evoke something more complex?