Efficiency of the Symmetry Bias in Grammar Acquisition

Abstract

It is well known that the symmetry bias much accelerates the vocabulary learning. In particular, the bias helps infants to connect objects with their names easily. However, grammar learning is another important aspect of language acquisition. In this study, we propose that the symmetry bias also would help to acquire grammar rules faster. We employ Iterated Learning Model, and revise it to include the symmetry bias. The result of the experiments shows that infants could abduce the meanings from incomprehensible utterances using the symmetry bias, and acquire the compositional grammar from a reduced amount of learning data.