Paper Info
Title
Harmony in linguistic cognition.
Abstract
In this article, I survey the integrated connectionist/symbolic (ICS) cognitive architecture in which higher cognition must be formally characterized on two levels of description. At the microlevel, parallel distributed processing (PDP) characterizes mental processing; this PDP system has special organization in virtue of which it can be characterized at the macrolevel as a kind of symbolic computational system. The symbolic system inherits certain properties from its PDP substrate; the symbolic functions computed constitute optimization of a well-formedness measure called Harmony. The most important outgrowth of the ICS research program is optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004), an optimization-based grammatical theory that provides a formal theory of cross-linguistic typology. Linguistically, Harmony maximization corresponds to minimization of markedness or structural ill-formedness. Cognitive explanation in ICS requires the collaboration of symbolic and connectionist principles. ICS is developed in detail in Smolensky and Legendre (2006a); this article is a precis of and guide to those volumes.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1207/s15516709cog0000_78
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
connectionism,symbolic theory,linguistics,optimality theory,cognitive architecture
Markedness,Computer science,Cognitive science,Cognitive psychology,Artificial intelligence,Cognitive architecture,Harmony (color),Connectionism,Optimality theory,The Symbolic,Theory,Linguistics,Maximization
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
30
5.0
0364-0213
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.64
9
Authors
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Paul Smolensky121593.76