Analysis of Argument Structure Constructions in a Deep Recurrent Language Model

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ramezani, Pegah, Schilling, Achim, Krauss, Patrick
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911979702059008
author Ramezani, Pegah
Schilling, Achim
Krauss, Patrick
author_facet Ramezani, Pegah
Schilling, Achim
Krauss, Patrick
contents Understanding how language and linguistic constructions are processed in the brain is a fundamental question in cognitive computational neuroscience. In this study, we explore the representation and processing of Argument Structure Constructions (ASCs) in a recurrent neural language model. We trained a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network on a custom-made dataset consisting of 2000 sentences, generated using GPT-4, representing four distinct ASCs: transitive, ditransitive, caused-motion, and resultative constructions. We analyzed the internal activations of the LSTM model's hidden layers using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) to visualize the sentence representations. The Generalized Discrimination Value (GDV) was calculated to quantify the degree of clustering within these representations. Our results show that sentence representations form distinct clusters corresponding to the four ASCs across all hidden layers, with the most pronounced clustering observed in the last hidden layer before the output layer. This indicates that even a relatively simple, brain-constrained recurrent neural network can effectively differentiate between various construction types. These findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating the emergence of word class and syntax rule representations in recurrent language models trained on next word prediction tasks. In future work, we aim to validate these results using larger language models and compare them with neuroimaging data obtained during continuous speech perception. This study highlights the potential of recurrent neural language models to mirror linguistic processing in the human brain, providing valuable insights into the computational and neural mechanisms underlying language understanding.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_03062
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Analysis of Argument Structure Constructions in a Deep Recurrent Language Model
Ramezani, Pegah
Schilling, Achim
Krauss, Patrick
Computation and Language
Understanding how language and linguistic constructions are processed in the brain is a fundamental question in cognitive computational neuroscience. In this study, we explore the representation and processing of Argument Structure Constructions (ASCs) in a recurrent neural language model. We trained a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network on a custom-made dataset consisting of 2000 sentences, generated using GPT-4, representing four distinct ASCs: transitive, ditransitive, caused-motion, and resultative constructions. We analyzed the internal activations of the LSTM model's hidden layers using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) to visualize the sentence representations. The Generalized Discrimination Value (GDV) was calculated to quantify the degree of clustering within these representations. Our results show that sentence representations form distinct clusters corresponding to the four ASCs across all hidden layers, with the most pronounced clustering observed in the last hidden layer before the output layer. This indicates that even a relatively simple, brain-constrained recurrent neural network can effectively differentiate between various construction types. These findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating the emergence of word class and syntax rule representations in recurrent language models trained on next word prediction tasks. In future work, we aim to validate these results using larger language models and compare them with neuroimaging data obtained during continuous speech perception. This study highlights the potential of recurrent neural language models to mirror linguistic processing in the human brain, providing valuable insights into the computational and neural mechanisms underlying language understanding.
title Analysis of Argument Structure Constructions in a Deep Recurrent Language Model
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03062