In:Specific Language Impairment: Current trends in research
Edited by Stavroula Stavrakaki
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 58] 2015
► pp. 145–174
The relationship between SLI in English and Modern Greek
Insights from computational models of language acquisition
Published online: 11 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.58.07kar
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.58.07kar
We present a computational modelling approach to the study of SLI in two languages
with different typological characteristics, namely English and Modern
Greek. Our modelling approach was based on the development of three neural
network (connectionist) architectures, each assumed to underlie the acquisition
of a core domain of language (inflectional morphology, syntax comprehension,
and syntax production). The architectures were exposed to artificial linguistic
environments reflecting the characteristics of their target domains in English
and Greek. Computational simulations also considered conditions of atypical
learning constraints, corresponding to different theoretical proposals for the
type of deficit underlying SLI. The simulation results, combined with some
shared properties of the three models, point to a unified explanation of the
impairment under the connectionist framework.
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