What is a statistical model?
How successful are statistical language models?
Is there anything like their notion of success in the history of science?
What doesn't Chomsky like about statistical models?
In this essay I will consider each question in turn, and atempt to show that statistical, probabilistic models are not only [...]
A few years ago, when I was still teaching at Yale, I was approached by a student who was interested in going to graduate school. She had her eye on Columbia; did I know someone there she could talk with? I did, an old professor of mine. But when I wrote to arrange the introduction, [...]
Researchers studying the various dialects of Japanese have concluded that all are descended from a founding language taken to the Japanese islands about 2,200 years ago. The finding sheds new light on the origin of the Japanese people, suggesting that their language is descended from that of the rice-growing farmers who arrived in Japan from [...]
