Bootstrapping (linguistics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In linguistics, bootstrapping may refer to either of three related and interdepedent theories regarding language acquisition:

• Syntactic bootstrapping is the idea that children use syntactic knowledge they have developed to help learn what words mean -- semantics builds on top of syntax. This idea was first tested by Lila Gleitman (1991).

• Semantic bootstrapping

It has been suggested that Semantic bootstrapping be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

• Bootstrapping of compositional language

Iterated learning and grounding: from holistic to compositional languages written by Paul Vogt. See also an abstract of Project: Transmitting knowledge through the bootstrapping of compositional language.