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From: rickw@eskimo.com (Richard Wojcik)
Subject: Re: Chomsky's Theorem
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Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 03:45:34 GMT
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In article <smryanD5tn7w.5D6@netcom.com>,
Principal Pooper <smryan@netcom.com> wrote:
>...
>Discarding formal linguistics is a major step, not to be
>done lightly. Since a type 0 language is equivalent to a
>Turing Machine and, by the CT hypothesis, equivalent to
>any formal symbol manipulation, the claim that languages
>cannot be described by a formal grammar is a strong claim
>that humans transcend Turing Machines. And thus AI is
>impossible. 
>
>Not that you can't claim it, but it should not be done
>trivially or carelessly.
>
>And since the strong CT hypothesis is neither proved nor
>disproved, don't demand people accept your claim.

Principal,
   This thread has not been about the rejection or acceptance of "formal
linguistics", and I regret it if anything I said conveyed that impression.
Mark Israel decided to cross-post it to sci.lang suddenly, and that is why
it has appeared on your screen.  Basically, it all started when he
criticized someone for expressing an affinity for the advice of linguists.
He responded with the rhetorical question "What does Chomsky's Theorem or
Greibach's Theorem have to do with natural language?"  I proposed that he
had no idea what "Chomsky's Theorem" (which I was not familiar with by that
rubric) was, and to please prove me wrong.  The discussion devolved to the
point where...well it doesn't really matter.  My point to him (which I have
had extreme difficulty getting across) was that those theorems have very
little to do with what mainstream linguistics is about.  That is not to say
that they have played an unimportant role in formal linguistic theory or
compiler theory.
-- 
Rick Wojcik  rickw@eskimo.com     Seattle (for locals: Bellevue), WA
             http://www.eskimo.com/~rickw/
