Modeling Language with Generative Adversarial Networks

Can we build models of language acquisition from raw acoustic data in an unsupervised manner? Can deep convolutional neural networks learn to generate speech using linguistically meaningful representations? In this talk, I will argue that language acquisition can be modeled with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and that such modeling has implications both for the understanding of language acquisition and for the understanding of how neural networks learn internal representations. I propose a technique that allows us to wug-test neural networks trained on raw speech. I further propose an extension of the GAN architecture in which learning of meaningful linguistic units emerges from a requirement that the networks output informative data. With this model, we can test what the networks can and cannot learn, how their biases match human learning biases (by comparing behavioral data with networksÂ’ outputs), how they represent linguistic structure internally, and what GAN's innovative outputs can teach us about productivity in human language. This talk also makes a more general case for probing deep neural networks with raw speech data, as dependencies in speech are often better understood than those in the visual domain and because behavioral data on speech acquisition are relatively easily accessible.

Event Type: 
Colloquium
Location: 
Zoom link will be provided before event date
Date: 
Friday, March 5, 2021
Time: 
11:10:00
To: 
12:30:00
Event Sponsor: 
Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Event Speakers: 
Gasper Begus