[Corpora-List] RE : Chomsky and computational linguistics

[Rob Freeman]

For me the question of interest is the complexity of descriptions of
corpora. Is a complete grammar possible, or is the corpus of a language is
the most compact description of itself?

If Chomsky's work is relevant to that, why not talk about it?

Personally I could do without the "he was right"/"he was wrong" stuff too.
It buries the interesting issues and is meaningless in the abstract.

So let's keep it tight to the science/engineering issue.

But let's talk about it.

If the completeness of grammatical descriptions of corpora is not an
appropriate topic for the Corpora list, what is?

-Rob

On 8/31/07, Mike Maxwell <maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu> wrote:

>

> Cécile Yousfi wrote:

> > I'm a mere user of the BNC and I'm no Chomsky specialist, but I do enjoy

> > reading interesting discussion on the subject. So please go on

> > discussing the matter on the list.

> >

> > It's intellectually stimulating to have a genuine dialogue on a

> > theoretical subject, and to be confronted to different points of view.

>

> As one who posted on this subject a couple months ago (and probably

> posted too much :-), not to mention representing the strident minority

> on this list), I have to say that there's probably a better forum.  This

> list is, after all, about corpora; and while the discussion could have

> been about whether modeling corpora is about science or engineering, it

> tended to be more about whether Chomsky's approach had any validity, or

> whether he should have admitted defeat, or about other issues that (at

> least IMO) have less to do with corpora.

>

> I would welcome suggestions for a more appropriate forum.

> --

>         Mike Maxwell

>         maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu

>         "Theorists...have merely to lock themselves in a room

>         with a blackboard and coffee maker to conduct their business."

>         --Bruce A. Schumm, Deep Down Things

>

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