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Merck's Blog

  • 2 min read

Towards a (More) Biologically Plausible Neural Net

Of the many machine learning models, the artificial neural network (ANN) is of particular interest because of the obvious analogy to the function of the brain. However, the standard supervised cost function and error back-propagation algorithm are entirely implausible from a biological perspective, and in practice the performance of back-prop decreases sharply with the number of hidden-layers, requiring more and more labeled training examples which are often in short supply.

  • 3 min read

The Neurolinguistic Paradigm Shift

As is the case in the physical sciences, I believe that linguistics proceeds in a pattern of punctuated equilibrium, those punctuations being paradigm shifts whereby the foundations of accepted theory are rewritten. In this way old mysteries become puzzles, explanations become more elegant, and new technological advances are enabled. Here I will briefly sketch the idea that generative linguistics should be reformulated in terms of quantitative neuroscience, and that such a reformulation will be immensely fruitful.

  • 6 min read

Some Questions about Syntax

This week I have been reading up on syntax. I started with Baker's The Atoms of Language, continued with Chomsky's Syntactic Structures, and have just finished the syntax chapter of the textbook Contemporary Linguistics (3rd edition). I have learned a great deal thus far, but the more I read the more questions I have. I write these notes into the margins of my books, but I now feel the need to post the more salient questions for later reference, lest they get buried when I continue my linguistic inquiry.

  • 5 min read

The Lomb Method

In a previous post I made some recommendations from among the established commercial language learning methods such as Berlitz, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, and a few course books. Over the past year I have branched out to experiment with the methods of various on-line linguaphile gurus, the likes of Piotr Wozniak, Tim Ferris, Mike Campbell, Prof Arguelles, and Katzumoto --- all of whom are worth checking out. But just today I stumbled across the method of polyglot and simultaneous interpreter Kató Lomb, as explained in her book How I Learn Languages. I found Lomb's book absolutely captivating. She makes a number of excellent points. Although her book is by no means a one-stop-shop for polyglottery, it is definitely worth a read for those aspiring to learn one or a few L2s.

  • 2 min read

A Meta-Etymological Dict

Aspiring polyglots face the huge challenge of massive vocabulary acquisition. Even in closely related languages, it is easy to miss cognates because of sound changes and different orthographies. I have found that using etymological information from dictionary look-ups has boosted my recall for learning from a single language -- but I conjecture that this boost will carry over to other languages of interest if the dictionary would provide related words in every language of interest when they exist. However, in present form, this procedure requires searching through possibly 12 different books! I believe an electronic version would be a huge boon to the modern polyglot community.

  • 3 min read

Adding Accents to Romanized Japanese

While working through Japanese the Spoken Language (JSL), I feel the need to make Anki cards for the spoken words that I'm having trouble recalling the meanings of. Now, I haven't yet decided exactly what card format is best, but I was dreading having to type in accents on the romanized words. (See the introduction to JSL to see what these accents are.) So, I wrote a quick program to allow easy input of accented words.

  • 2 min read

Theory of Deuxième Vue

The Theory of Deuxieme Vue, or second sight, is something I've been working on for a while now. I'm not sure what the general version is quite yet, but I will give some examples.