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"On the goals of linguistic theory": Revisiting Chomskyan theories in the era of AI

Theoretical linguistics seeks to explain what human language is, and why. Linguists and cognitive scientists have proposed different theoretical models of what language is, as well as cognitive factors that shape it, and allow humans to 'produce', 'understand', and 'acquire' natural languages. However, humans may no longer be the only ones learning to 'generate', 'parse', and 'learn' natural language: artificial intelligence (AI) models such as large language models are proving to have impressive linguistic capabilities. Many are thus questioning what role, if any, such models should play in helping theoretical linguistics reach its ultimate research goals? In this paper, we propose to answer this question, by reiterating the tenets of generative linguistics, a leading school of thought in the field, and by considering how AI models as theories of language relate to each of these important concepts. Specifically, we consider three foundational principles, finding roots in the early works of Noam Chomsky: (1) levels of theoretical adequacy; (2) procedures for linguistic theory development; (3) language learnability and Universal Grammar. In our discussions of each principle, we give special attention to two types of AI models: neural language models and neural grammar induction models. We will argue that such models, in particular neural grammar induction models, do have a role to play, but that this role is largely modulated by the stance one takes regarding each of these three guiding principles.

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