scholarly journals Principles of structure building in music, language and animal song

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1664) ◽  
pp. 20140097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Rohrmeier ◽  
Willem Zuidema ◽  
Geraint A. Wiggins ◽  
Constance Scharff
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Chomsky Hierarchy ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
Animal Vocalizations ◽  
Communicative Success ◽  
Parallel Feature

Human language, music and a variety of animal vocalizations constitute ways of sonic communication that exhibit remarkable structural complexity. While the complexities of language and possible parallels in animal communication have been discussed intensively, reflections on the complexity of music and animal song, and their comparisons, are underrepresented. In some ways, music and animal songs are more comparable to each other than to language as propositional semantics cannot be used as indicator of communicative success or wellformedness, and notions of grammaticality are less easily defined. This review brings together accounts of the principles of structure building in music and animal song. It relates them to corresponding models in formal language theory, the extended Chomsky hierarchy (CH), and their probabilistic counterparts. We further discuss common misunderstandings and shortcomings concerning the CH and suggest ways to move beyond. We discuss language, music and animal song in the context of their function and motivation and further integrate problems and issues that are less commonly addressed in the context of language, including continuous event spaces, features of sound and timbre, representation of temporality and interactions of multiple parallel feature streams. We discuss these aspects in the light of recent theoretical, cognitive, neuroscientific and modelling research in the domains of music, language and animal song.

scholarly journals A Note on Weak vs. Strong Generation in Human Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Fukui
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Formal Language Theory ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Brain Science ◽  
Chomsky Hierarchy ◽  
Human Language Faculty

Abstract This paper argues that various important results of formal language theory (e.g., the so-called Chomsky Hierarchy) may in fact be illusory as far as the human language faculty is concerned, as has been repeatedly emphasized by Chomsky himself. The paper takes up nested dependencies and cross-serial dependencies, the two important dependencies that typically show up in the discussion of the central classes of grammars and languages, and specifically shows that the fact that nested dependencies abound in human language while cross-serial dependencies are rather limited in human language can be naturally explained if we shift our attention from dependencies defined on terminal strings to abstract structures behind them. The paper then shows that nested dependencies are readily obtained by Merge, applying phase-by-phase, whereas cross-serial dependencies are available only as a result of copying Merge, which requires a constituency of the relevant strings. These results strongly suggest that dependencies are possible in human language only to the extent that they are the results from the structures that can be generated by Merge, leading to the conclusion that it is Merge-generability that determines various dependencies in human language, and that dependencies defined on the terminal strings are indeed illusory. A possible brain science experiment to demonstrate this point is also suggested.

scholarly journals Artificial grammar learning meets formal language theory: an overview

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1598) ◽  
pp. 1933-1955 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Tecumseh Fitch ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Rna Structure ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Artificial Grammar Learning ◽  
Formal Language Theory ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Animal Vocalizations

Formal language theory (FLT), part of the broader mathematical theory of computation, provides a systematic terminology and set of conventions for describing rules and the structures they generate, along with a rich body of discoveries and theorems concerning generative rule systems. Despite its name, FLT is not limited to human language, but is equally applicable to computer programs, music, visual patterns, animal vocalizations, RNA structure and even dance. In the last decade, this theory has been profitably used to frame hypotheses and to design brain imaging and animal-learning experiments, mostly using the ‘artificial grammar-learning’ paradigm. We offer a brief, non-technical introduction to FLT and then a more detailed analysis of empirical research based on this theory. We suggest that progress has been hampered by a pervasive conflation of distinct issues, including hierarchy, dependency, complexity and recursion. We offer clarifications of several relevant hypotheses and the experimental designs necessary to test them. We finally review the recent brain imaging literature, using formal languages, identifying areas of convergence and outstanding debates. We conclude that FLT has much to offer scientists who are interested in rigorous empirical investigations of human cognition from a neuroscientific and comparative perspective.

scholarly journals Formal language theory: refining the Chomsky hierarchy

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1598) ◽  
pp. 1956-1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Jäger ◽  
James Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Regular Languages ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Context Free Grammar ◽  
Chomsky Hierarchy ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Natural Language Syntax

The first part of this article gives a brief overview of the four levels of the Chomsky hierarchy, with a special emphasis on context-free and regular languages. It then recapitulates the arguments why neither regular nor context-free grammar is sufficiently expressive to capture all phenomena in the natural language syntax. In the second part, two refinements of the Chomsky hierarchy are reviewed, which are both relevant to the extant research in cognitive science: the mildly context-sensitive languages (which are located between context-free and context-sensitive languages), and the sub-regular hierarchy (which distinguishes several levels of complexity within the class of regular languages).

scholarly journals Phonological typology in Optimality Theory and Formal Language Theory: goals and future directions

Phonology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-353
Author(s):  
Joe Pater
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Regular Languages ◽  
Formal Language Theory ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Chomsky Hierarchy ◽  
Phonological Typology

Much recent work has studied phonological typology in terms of Formal Language Theory (e.g. the Chomsky hierarchy). This paper considers whether Optimality Theory grammars might be constrained to generate only regular languages, and also whether the tools of formal language theory might be used for constructing phonological theories similar to those within Optimality Theory. It offers reasons to be optimistic about the first possibility, and sceptical about the second.

Context Free Grammar Identification from Positive Samples

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.12) ◽  
pp. 1096
Author(s):  
K Senthil Kumar ◽  
D Malathi
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Grammatical Inference ◽  
Context Free Grammar ◽  
Chomsky Hierarchy ◽  
Compiler Design ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Context Free

In grammatical inference one aims to find underlying grammar or automaton which explains the target language in some way. Context free grammar which represents type 2 grammar in Chomsky hierarchy has many applications in Formal Language Theory, pattern recognition, Speech recognition, Machine learning , Compiler design and Genetic engineering etc. Identification of unknown Context Free grammar of the target language from positive examples is an extensive area in Grammatical Inference/ Grammar induction. In this paper we propose a novel method which finds the equivalent Chomsky Normal form.  

scholarly journals Static Watson-Crick regular grammar

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 457-462
Author(s):  
Aqilahfarhana Abdul Rahman ◽  
Wan Heng Fong ◽  
Nor Haniza Sarmin ◽  
Sherzod Turaev ◽  
Nurul Liyana Mohamad Zulkufli
Keyword(s):  
Dna Computing ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Formal Language Theory ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Chomsky Hierarchy ◽  
New Variant ◽  
Sticker System ◽  
Dna Strands ◽  
Regular Grammar

DNA computing, or more generally, molecular computing, is a recent development at the interface of computer science and molecular biology. In DNA computing, many computational models have been proposed in the framework of formal language theory and automata such as Watson-Crick grammars and sticker systems. A Watson-Crick grammar is a grammar model that generates double stranded strings, whereas a sticker system is a DNA computing model of the ligation and annealing operations over DNA strands using the Watson-Crick complementarity to form a complete double stranded DNA sequence. Most of the proposed DNA computing models make use of this concept, including the Watson-Crick grammars and sticker systems. Watson-Crick grammars and their variants can be explored using formal language theory which allows the development of new concepts of Watson-Crick grammars.  In this research, a new variant of Watson-Crick grammar called a static Watson-Crick regular grammar is introduced as an analytical counterpart of sticker systems. The computation of a sticker system starts from a given set of incomplete double stranded sequence to form a complete double stranded sequence. Here, a static Watson-Crick regular grammar differs from a dynamic Watson-Crick regular grammar in generating double stranded strings: the latter grammar produces each strand string “independently” and only check for the Watson-Crick complementarity of a generated complete double stranded string at the end, while the former grammar generates both strand strings “dependently”, i.e., checking for the Watson-Crick complementarity for each complete substring. In this paper, computational properties of static Watson-Crick regular grammars are investigated to correlate with the Chomsky hierarchy and hierarchy of the families of dynamic Watson-Crick regular languages. The relationship between families of languages generated by static Watson-Crick regular grammars with several variants of sticker systems, Watson-Crick regular grammars and Chomsky grammars are presented by showing the hierarchy.

scholarly journals Bird sounds in nature writing: Human perspective on animal communication

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 580-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadri Tüür
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Nature Writing ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Bird Song ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Human Interpretation ◽  
Object Of Study

The object of study in the present article is birds, more precisely the sounds of birds as they are represented in Estonian nature writing. The evolutionary and structural parallels of bird song with human language are reviewed. Human interpretation of bird sounds raises the question, whether it is possible to transmit or “translate” signals between the Umwelts of different species. The intentions of the sender of the signal may remain unknown, but the signification process within human Umwelt can still be traced and analysed. By approaching the excerpts of nature writing using semiotic methodology, I attempt to demonstrate how bird sounds can function as different types of signs, as outlined by Thomas A. Sebeok. It is argued that the zoosemiotic treatment of nature writing opens up a number of interesting perspectives that would otherwise remain beyond the scope of traditional literary analysis.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL LANGUAGE THEORY SINCE 1956

1990 ◽  
Vol 01 (04) ◽  
pp. 355-368
Author(s):  
ROBERT McNAUGHTON
Keyword(s):  
Formal Language ◽  
Formal Languages ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Formal Language Theory ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Personal Interest

This brief survey will discuss the early years of the theory of formal languages through about 1970, treating only the most fundamental of the concepts. The paper will conclude with a brief discussion of a small number of topics, the choice reflecting only the personal interest of the author.

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