A Biologically Plausible Parser
This work addresses the challenge of building biologically plausible parsers for natural language processing, though it is incremental as it builds on the Assembly Calculus framework and uses simple sentences.
The authors tackled the problem of parsing English sentences using a biologically plausible neural model based on the Assembly Calculus, achieving correct parsing of reasonably nontrivial sentences. They demonstrated potential extensions to other languages and linguistic features like recursion and polysemy.
We describe a parser of English effectuated by biologically plausible neurons and synapses, and implemented through the Assembly Calculus, a recently proposed computational framework for cognitive function. We demonstrate that this device is capable of correctly parsing reasonably nontrivial sentences. While our experiments entail rather simple sentences in English, our results suggest that the parser can be extended beyond what we have implemented, to several directions encompassing much of language. For example, we present a simple Russian version of the parser, and discuss how to handle recursion, embedding, and polysemy.