storage/retrieval/computation

[Martin Haspelmath]

I'd like to get back to Bill Croft's original question regarding
parsimony  of storage/retrieval/computation. I have two comments:

First, it should be noted that the claim that "storage is easier than
computation" presupposes some implicit comparison. If we say that "kids
learn huge numbers of words very quickly, but they're very slow to learn

general constructional patterns" (Suzanne Kemmer), how do we judge that
the first is "quick", the second "slow" -- by what standards? It seems
to me that the implicit comparison is to a large extent the conventional

serial computer. Compared to computers, humans are bad at processing and

good at storage. Even ten years ago (let alone today), computers were
able to carry out a much larger number of successive operations per
second than humans. Since the "cognitivist revolution" in the 1950s, the

serial computer has served as an important point of reference for
understanding human cognition.

Second, Bill Croft opposed storage/retrieval to computation, but it
isn't clear to me that this is the right contrast. Maybe it's mainly
storage that is easy, whereas processing in general, both retrieval and
computation, are more difficult. That would allow us, for instance, to
preserve Haiman's argument (in "Natural syntax", CUP 1985) that the
massive polysemy we find in language is economically motivated. After
all, if we're so good at storage, why should we need to economize in the

lexicon? Humans can easily learn 5-10 languages (if given the
opportunity), so why not have a lexicon that is 5-10 times as large?
Maybe the motivation is processing parsimony after all. In a huge
lexicon, retrieval can be quite difficult, even though there is enough
storage space.

All this is pure speculation, of course, and it would be interesting to
see whether the psychologists have anything to say about it.

--Martin Haspelmath


--
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Inselstr. 22
D-04103 Leipzig (Tel.+49-341-9952 307)


--
Dr. Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Inselstr. 22
D-04103 Leipzig (Tel. (MPI) +49-341-9952 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616)