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From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Language Learning
Message-ID: <4238@venera.isi.edu>
Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 20:45:55 EST
Article-I.D.: venera.4238
Posted: Thu Dec  3 20:45:55 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Dec-87 04:22:54 EST
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Sender: daemon@venera.isi.edu
Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar)
Organization: Information Sciences Institute
Lines: 17
Keywords: phonemes
Summary: Fodor strikes again!


This account of learning the "beetle" sound reminds me of one of the
sillier remarks in Jerry Fodor's THE LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT.  While he
was discussing the role of visual exemplars in understanding, I would
think his remarks are as applicable to audible exemplars:

	The present point is that the process by which one becomes
	acquainted with the exemplar is not itself a process of
	hypothesis formation and testing;  it is, rather, the
	process of opening one's eyes [ears] and looking [listening].

The accounts of both Alen Shaprio and Robert Stanley would indicate
that phoneme learning is not just a matter of hearing good exemplars.
Attempts by the learner to reproduce the phoneme clearly seem to be
an indication of hypothesis formation on the learner's part (hypothesizing
how to shape the mouth and control the breath) and testing based on both
what the learner hears and how others react to it.