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Abstract

Abstract. We are developing a theory of probabilistic language learning in the context of robotic instruction in elementary assembly actions. We describe the process of machine learning in terms of the various events that happen on a given trial, including the crucial association of words with internal representations of their meaning. Of central importance in learning is the generalization from utterances to grammatical forms. Our system derives a comprehension grammar for a superset of a natural language from pairs of verbal stimuli like Go to the screw! and corresponding internal representations of coerced actions. For the derivation of a grammar no knowledge of the language to be learned is assumed but only knowledge of an internal language.We present grammars for English, Chinese, and German generated from a finite sample of about 500 commands that are roughly equivalent across the three languages. All of the three grammars, which are context-free in form, accept an infinite set of commands in the given language.