A simple computational model for classifying small string sets

Abstract

Recent research hypothesizes that the capacity for syntactic recursions forms the computational core of a uniquely human language faculty. Contrary to this hypothesis, Gentner et al. claimed that the capacity to classify sequences from recursive, center-embedded grammar is not uniquely human. We show in this paper that the patterns Gentner used are classified by a Bayesian classifier, a simple and fundamental classifier in machine learning, and consequently we claim that their argument is flawed.