German inflection: The exception that proves the rule. Marcus, G. F, Brinkmann, U, Clahsen, H, Wiese, R, & Pinker, S Cognit Psychol, 29(3):189-256, 1995. abstract bibtex Language is often explained as the product of generative rules and a memorized lexicon. For example, most English verbs take a regular past tense suffix (ask-asked), which is applied to new verbs (faxed, wugged), suggesting the mental rule "add -ed to a Verb." Irregular verbs (break-broke, go-went) would be listed in memory. Alternatively, a pattern associator memory (such as a connectionist network) might record all past tense forms and generalize to new ones by similarity; irregular and regular patterns would differ only because of their different numbers of verbs. We present evidence that mental rules are indispensible. A rule concatenates a suffix to a symbol for verbs, so it does not require access to memorized verbs or their sound patterns, but applies as the "default," whenever memory access fails. We find 21 such circumstances for regular past tense formation, including novel, unusual-sounding, and rootless and headless derived words; in every case, people inflect them regularly (explaining quirks like flied out, sabre-tooths, walkmans). Contrary to the connectionist account, these effects are not due to regular words constituting a large majority of vocabulary. The German participle -t applies to a much smaller percentage of verbs than its English counterpart, and the German plural -s applies to a small minority of nouns. But the affixes behave in the language like their English counterparts, as defaults. We corroborate this effect in two experiments eliciting ratings of participle and plural forms of novel German words. Thus default suffixation is not due to numerous regular words reinforcing a pattern in associative memory. Because default cases do not occupy a cohesive similarity space, but do correspond to the range of a symbol, they are evidence for a memory-independent, symbol-concatenating mental operation.
@Article{Marcus1995,
author = {Gary F Marcus and U Brinkmann and H Clahsen and R Wiese and S Pinker},
journal = {Cognit Psychol},
title = {German inflection: {T}he exception that proves the rule.},
year = {1995},
number = {3},
pages = {189-256},
volume = {29},
abstract = {Language is often explained as the product of generative rules and
a memorized lexicon. For example, most English verbs take a regular
past tense suffix (ask-asked), which is applied to new verbs (faxed,
wugged), suggesting the mental rule "add -ed to a Verb." Irregular
verbs (break-broke, go-went) would be listed in memory. Alternatively,
a pattern associator memory (such as a connectionist network) might
record all past tense forms and generalize to new ones by similarity;
irregular and regular patterns would differ only because of their
different numbers of verbs. We present evidence that mental rules
are indispensible. A rule concatenates a suffix to a symbol for verbs,
so it does not require access to memorized verbs or their sound patterns,
but applies as the "default," whenever memory access fails. We find
21 such circumstances for regular past tense formation, including
novel, unusual-sounding, and rootless and headless derived words;
in every case, people inflect them regularly (explaining quirks like
flied out, sabre-tooths, walkmans). Contrary to the connectionist
account, these effects are not due to regular words constituting
a large majority of vocabulary. The German participle -t applies
to a much smaller percentage of verbs than its English counterpart,
and the German plural -s applies to a small minority of nouns. But
the affixes behave in the language like their English counterparts,
as defaults. We corroborate this effect in two experiments eliciting
ratings of participle and plural forms of novel German words. Thus
default suffixation is not due to numerous regular words reinforcing
a pattern in associative memory. Because default cases do not occupy
a cohesive similarity space, but do correspond to the range of a
symbol, they are evidence for a memory-independent, symbol-concatenating
mental operation.},
keywords = {Computing Methodologies, Human, Language, Learning, Mental Processes, Models, Theoretical, Stochastic Processes, Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Cognition, Linguistics, Neural Networks (Computer), Practice (Psychology), Non-U.S. Gov't, Memory, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Adult, Attention, Discrimination Learning, Female, Male, Short-Term, Mental Recall, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Perceptual Masking, Reading, Concept Formation, Form Perception, Animals, Corpus Striatum, Shrews, P.H.S., Visual Cortex, Visual Pathways, Acoustic Stimulation, Auditory Cortex, Auditory Perception, Cochlea, Ear, Gerbillinae, Glycine, Hearing, Neurons, Space Perception, Strychnine, Adolescent, Decision Making, Reaction Time, Astrocytoma, Brain Mapping, Brain Neoplasms, Cerebral Cortex, Electric Stimulation, Electrophysiology, Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe, Evoked Potentials, Frontal Lobe, Noise, Parietal Lobe, Scalp, Child, Language Development, Psycholinguistics, Brain, Perception, Speech, Vocalization, Animal, Discrimination (Psychology), Hippocampus, Rats, Calcium, Chelating Agents, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Glutamic Acid, Guanosine Diphosphate, In Vitro, Neuronal Plasticity, Pyramidal Cells, Receptors, AMPA, Metabotropic Glutamate, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Somatosensory Cortex, Synapses, Synaptic Transmission, Thionucleotides, Action Potentials, Calcium Channels, L-Type, Electric Conductivity, Entorhinal Cortex, Neurological, Long-Evans, Infant, Mathematics, Statistics, Probability Learning, Problem Solving, Psychophysics, Association Learning, Child Psychology, Habituation (Psychophysiology), Probability Theory, Analysis of Variance, Semantics, Symbolism, Behavior, Eye Movements, Macaca mulatta, Prefrontal Cortex, Cats, Dogs, Haplorhini, Photic Stimulation, Electroencephalography, Nervous System Physiology, Darkness, Grasshoppers, Light, Membrane Potentials, Neural Inhibition, Afferent, Picrotoxin, Vision, Deoxyglucose, Injections, Microspheres, Neural Pathways, Rhodamines, Choice Behavior, Speech Perception, Verbal Learning, Dominance, Cerebral, Fixation, Ocular, Language Tests, Random Allocation, Comparative Study, Saguinus, Sound Spectrography, Species Specificity, Audiometry, Auditory Threshold, Calibration, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Anesthesia, General, Electrodes, Implanted, Pitch Perception, Sound Localization, Paired-Associate Learning, Serial Learning, Auditory, Age Factors, Motion Perception, Brain Injuries, Computer Simulation, Blindness, Psychomotor Performance, Color Perception, Signal Detection (Psychology), Judgment, ROC Curve, Regression Analysis, Music, Probability, Arm, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Hemiplegia, Movement, Muscle, Skeletal, Myoclonus, Robotics, Magnetoencephalography, Phonetics, Software, Speech Production Measurement, Epilepsies, Partial, Laterality, Stereotaxic Techniques, Germany, Speech Acoustics, 8556846},
}
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{"_id":"Gx6c6H9PSyh8jFBaj","bibbaseid":"marcus-brinkmann-clahsen-wiese-pinker-germaninflectiontheexceptionthatprovestherule-1995","author_short":["Marcus, G. F","Brinkmann, U","Clahsen, H","Wiese, R","Pinker, S"],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"article","type":"article","author":[{"firstnames":["Gary","F"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Marcus"],"suffixes":[]},{"firstnames":["U"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Brinkmann"],"suffixes":[]},{"firstnames":["H"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Clahsen"],"suffixes":[]},{"firstnames":["R"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Wiese"],"suffixes":[]},{"firstnames":["S"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Pinker"],"suffixes":[]}],"journal":"Cognit Psychol","title":"German inflection: The exception that proves the rule.","year":"1995","number":"3","pages":"189-256","volume":"29","abstract":"Language is often explained as the product of generative rules and a memorized lexicon. For example, most English verbs take a regular past tense suffix (ask-asked), which is applied to new verbs (faxed, wugged), suggesting the mental rule \"add -ed to a Verb.\" Irregular verbs (break-broke, go-went) would be listed in memory. Alternatively, a pattern associator memory (such as a connectionist network) might record all past tense forms and generalize to new ones by similarity; irregular and regular patterns would differ only because of their different numbers of verbs. We present evidence that mental rules are indispensible. A rule concatenates a suffix to a symbol for verbs, so it does not require access to memorized verbs or their sound patterns, but applies as the \"default,\" whenever memory access fails. We find 21 such circumstances for regular past tense formation, including novel, unusual-sounding, and rootless and headless derived words; in every case, people inflect them regularly (explaining quirks like flied out, sabre-tooths, walkmans). Contrary to the connectionist account, these effects are not due to regular words constituting a large majority of vocabulary. The German participle -t applies to a much smaller percentage of verbs than its English counterpart, and the German plural -s applies to a small minority of nouns. But the affixes behave in the language like their English counterparts, as defaults. We corroborate this effect in two experiments eliciting ratings of participle and plural forms of novel German words. Thus default suffixation is not due to numerous regular words reinforcing a pattern in associative memory. Because default cases do not occupy a cohesive similarity space, but do correspond to the range of a symbol, they are evidence for a memory-independent, symbol-concatenating mental operation.","keywords":"Computing Methodologies, Human, Language, Learning, Mental Processes, Models, Theoretical, Stochastic Processes, Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Cognition, Linguistics, Neural Networks (Computer), Practice (Psychology), Non-U.S. Gov't, Memory, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Adult, Attention, Discrimination Learning, Female, Male, Short-Term, Mental Recall, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Perceptual Masking, Reading, Concept Formation, Form Perception, Animals, Corpus Striatum, Shrews, P.H.S., Visual Cortex, Visual Pathways, Acoustic Stimulation, Auditory Cortex, Auditory Perception, Cochlea, Ear, Gerbillinae, Glycine, Hearing, Neurons, Space Perception, Strychnine, Adolescent, Decision Making, Reaction Time, Astrocytoma, Brain Mapping, Brain Neoplasms, Cerebral Cortex, Electric Stimulation, Electrophysiology, Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe, Evoked Potentials, Frontal Lobe, Noise, Parietal Lobe, Scalp, Child, Language Development, Psycholinguistics, Brain, Perception, Speech, Vocalization, Animal, Discrimination (Psychology), Hippocampus, Rats, Calcium, Chelating Agents, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Glutamic Acid, Guanosine Diphosphate, In Vitro, Neuronal Plasticity, Pyramidal Cells, Receptors, AMPA, Metabotropic Glutamate, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Somatosensory Cortex, Synapses, Synaptic Transmission, Thionucleotides, Action Potentials, Calcium Channels, L-Type, Electric Conductivity, Entorhinal Cortex, Neurological, Long-Evans, Infant, Mathematics, Statistics, Probability Learning, Problem Solving, Psychophysics, Association Learning, Child Psychology, Habituation (Psychophysiology), Probability Theory, Analysis of Variance, Semantics, Symbolism, Behavior, Eye Movements, Macaca mulatta, Prefrontal Cortex, Cats, Dogs, Haplorhini, Photic Stimulation, Electroencephalography, Nervous System Physiology, Darkness, Grasshoppers, Light, Membrane Potentials, Neural Inhibition, Afferent, Picrotoxin, Vision, Deoxyglucose, Injections, Microspheres, Neural Pathways, Rhodamines, Choice Behavior, Speech Perception, Verbal Learning, Dominance, Cerebral, Fixation, Ocular, Language Tests, Random Allocation, Comparative Study, Saguinus, Sound Spectrography, Species Specificity, Audiometry, Auditory Threshold, Calibration, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Anesthesia, General, Electrodes, Implanted, Pitch Perception, Sound Localization, Paired-Associate Learning, Serial Learning, Auditory, Age Factors, Motion Perception, Brain Injuries, Computer Simulation, Blindness, Psychomotor Performance, Color Perception, Signal Detection (Psychology), Judgment, ROC Curve, Regression Analysis, Music, Probability, Arm, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Hemiplegia, Movement, Muscle, Skeletal, Myoclonus, Robotics, Magnetoencephalography, Phonetics, Software, Speech Production Measurement, Epilepsies, Partial, Laterality, Stereotaxic Techniques, Germany, Speech Acoustics, 8556846","bibtex":"@Article{Marcus1995,\n author = {Gary F Marcus and U Brinkmann and H Clahsen and R Wiese and S Pinker},\n journal = {Cognit Psychol},\n title = {German inflection: {T}he exception that proves the rule.},\n year = {1995},\n number = {3},\n pages = {189-256},\n volume = {29},\n abstract = {Language is often explained as the product of generative rules and\n\ta memorized lexicon. For example, most English verbs take a regular\n\tpast tense suffix (ask-asked), which is applied to new verbs (faxed,\n\twugged), suggesting the mental rule \"add -ed to a Verb.\" Irregular\n\tverbs (break-broke, go-went) would be listed in memory. Alternatively,\n\ta pattern associator memory (such as a connectionist network) might\n\trecord all past tense forms and generalize to new ones by similarity;\n\tirregular and regular patterns would differ only because of their\n\tdifferent numbers of verbs. We present evidence that mental rules\n\tare indispensible. A rule concatenates a suffix to a symbol for verbs,\n\tso it does not require access to memorized verbs or their sound patterns,\n\tbut applies as the \"default,\" whenever memory access fails. We find\n\t21 such circumstances for regular past tense formation, including\n\tnovel, unusual-sounding, and rootless and headless derived words;\n\tin every case, people inflect them regularly (explaining quirks like\n\tflied out, sabre-tooths, walkmans). Contrary to the connectionist\n\taccount, these effects are not due to regular words constituting\n\ta large majority of vocabulary. The German participle -t applies\n\tto a much smaller percentage of verbs than its English counterpart,\n\tand the German plural -s applies to a small minority of nouns. But\n\tthe affixes behave in the language like their English counterparts,\n\tas defaults. We corroborate this effect in two experiments eliciting\n\tratings of participle and plural forms of novel German words. Thus\n\tdefault suffixation is not due to numerous regular words reinforcing\n\ta pattern in associative memory. Because default cases do not occupy\n\ta cohesive similarity space, but do correspond to the range of a\n\tsymbol, they are evidence for a memory-independent, symbol-concatenating\n\tmental operation.},\n keywords = {Computing Methodologies, Human, Language, Learning, Mental Processes, Models, Theoretical, Stochastic Processes, Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Cognition, Linguistics, Neural Networks (Computer), Practice (Psychology), Non-U.S. Gov't, Memory, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Adult, Attention, Discrimination Learning, Female, Male, Short-Term, Mental Recall, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Perceptual Masking, Reading, Concept Formation, Form Perception, Animals, Corpus Striatum, Shrews, P.H.S., Visual Cortex, Visual Pathways, Acoustic Stimulation, Auditory Cortex, Auditory Perception, Cochlea, Ear, Gerbillinae, Glycine, Hearing, Neurons, Space Perception, Strychnine, Adolescent, Decision Making, Reaction Time, Astrocytoma, Brain Mapping, Brain Neoplasms, Cerebral Cortex, Electric Stimulation, Electrophysiology, Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe, Evoked Potentials, Frontal Lobe, Noise, Parietal Lobe, Scalp, Child, Language Development, Psycholinguistics, Brain, Perception, Speech, Vocalization, Animal, Discrimination (Psychology), Hippocampus, Rats, Calcium, Chelating Agents, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Glutamic Acid, Guanosine Diphosphate, In Vitro, Neuronal Plasticity, Pyramidal Cells, Receptors, AMPA, Metabotropic Glutamate, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Somatosensory Cortex, Synapses, Synaptic Transmission, Thionucleotides, Action Potentials, Calcium Channels, L-Type, Electric Conductivity, Entorhinal Cortex, Neurological, Long-Evans, Infant, Mathematics, Statistics, Probability Learning, Problem Solving, Psychophysics, Association Learning, Child Psychology, Habituation (Psychophysiology), Probability Theory, Analysis of Variance, Semantics, Symbolism, Behavior, Eye Movements, Macaca mulatta, Prefrontal Cortex, Cats, Dogs, Haplorhini, Photic Stimulation, Electroencephalography, Nervous System Physiology, Darkness, Grasshoppers, Light, Membrane Potentials, Neural Inhibition, Afferent, Picrotoxin, Vision, Deoxyglucose, Injections, Microspheres, Neural Pathways, Rhodamines, Choice Behavior, Speech Perception, Verbal Learning, Dominance, Cerebral, Fixation, Ocular, Language Tests, Random Allocation, Comparative Study, Saguinus, Sound Spectrography, Species Specificity, Audiometry, Auditory Threshold, Calibration, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Anesthesia, General, Electrodes, Implanted, Pitch Perception, Sound Localization, Paired-Associate Learning, Serial Learning, Auditory, Age Factors, Motion Perception, Brain Injuries, Computer Simulation, Blindness, Psychomotor Performance, Color Perception, Signal Detection (Psychology), Judgment, ROC Curve, Regression Analysis, Music, Probability, Arm, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Hemiplegia, Movement, Muscle, Skeletal, Myoclonus, Robotics, Magnetoencephalography, Phonetics, Software, Speech Production Measurement, Epilepsies, Partial, Laterality, Stereotaxic Techniques, Germany, Speech Acoustics, 8556846},\n}\n\n","author_short":["Marcus, G. 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