IUBio

Neurology and language

Arthur T. Murray uj797 at victoria.tc.ca
Tue Feb 22 11:58:20 EST 2000


Robin Allott, rmallott at percep.demon.co.uk, wrote on Tue, 22 Feb 2000:

> The following forwarded comment is on the recent extended
> discussion in sci.lang of the future of linguistics
> (originated under the sceptical heading 'Wither linguistics?'):

> [...] The work of Pulvermuller, 'Electrocortical distinction
> of vocabulary types', and others using similar research protocols,
> allows one to begin to picture how from the intersection of lexical
> and syntactic processes in the brain the continuous stream of
> well-formed and semantically valid speech can be produced.

Yes, but how to achieve the lexico-syntactic intersection?  It is
tricky in software, but we are doing it with Mind.Forth PD AI:
<PRE>
  /^^^^^^^^^^^\ Syntax Strings Together a Thought /^^^^^^^^^^^\
 /visual memory\           ________   semantic   /  auditory   \
|      /--------|-------\ / syntax \  memory    |episodic memory|
|      |  recog-|nition | \________/------------|-------------\ |
|   ___|___     |       |     |flush-vector     |    _______  | |
|  /image  \    |     __|__  / \  _______       |   /stored \ | |
| / percept \   |    /     \/   \/ Verbs \------|--/ phonemes\| |
| \ engrams /---|---/ Nouns \    \_______/      |  \ of words/  |
|  \_______/    |   \_______/-------------------|---\_______/   |
</PRE>

> In the brain different categories of words, content words,
> function words, vision words, action/motor words, are associated
> with topographically different patterns of excitation; the brain
> seems to be categorising the perception of words in ways very
> similar to the standard analyses of the lexicon.

Robin Allott's website has a paper "The Primitive Vocabulary" at
http://www.percep.demon.co.uk/primvoc.htm which will help coders
to standardize a common set of Deep Mindcore Bootstrap Concepts:

<PRE>
  /^^^^^^^^^^^\                                   /^^^^^^^^^^^\
 /visual memory\                    ________     /  auditory   \
|      /--------|-------\          / syntax \   |episodic memory|
|      |  recog-|nition |          \________/---|-------------\ |
|   ___|___     |       |              |        |    _______  | |
|  /image  \    |     __V___        ___V___     |   /stored \ | |
| / percept \   |    /deep  \------/lexical\----|--/ phonemes\| |
| \ engrams /---|---/concepts\----/concepts \---|--\ of words/  |
|  \_______/    |   \________/    \_________/   |   \_______/   |
</PRE>

>                                          With this topographical
> categorisation, one can begin to see how there must be processes
> for associating the different categories in ways which are
> equivalent to the meaning-content of a sentence, within the
> very large context represented by the persisting structure
> of dynamic memory (Schank's term). Gallese and Rizzolatti's
> research on mirror neurons is also encouraging (to be the
> subject a conference in July 'Mirror Neurons and the Evolution
> of Brain and Language'). If the neurology and the less formalistic
> approaches of contemporary linguistics can begin to make sense
> together, a genuine and comprehensive 'Science of Language' may
> come into being much sooner than is often supposed.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/mind4th.html Mind.Forth
is the software implementation of such a 'Science of Language.'

Look for a book on 'The Art of Computer Mindmaking' coming in 2000.

> Robin Allott

> http://www.percep.demon.co.uk/catsat.htm
> http://www.percep.demon.co.uk/




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