EXEMPLAR MODELS

Models which assume that language is stored in the mind in the form not of rules or prototypes but of sets of examples. The examples constitute a record of the speaker’s many encounters with a particular syntactic structure, item of vocabulary or phonological feature. From them, the speaker can extrapolate certain central tendencies or shared features; but they can also make allowance for a range of variants.

Exemplar models assume that human beings possess a vast memory capacity for linguistic data, which enables hundreds of individual tokens of a particular linguistic feature to be stored and recalled. This remains a large assumption, but proponents argue that it is the only way of accounting satisfactorily for our capacity to deal with individual variation in language. As evidence, they cite our ability not only to recall the content of a message but also to recognise the voice of the speaker if we hear it again. Exemplar models can account for problematic phenomena such as the recognition of vowels within vowel space, the phonological representation of words, speaker normalisation and the storage of local exceptions alongside global syntactic principles.

The theory provides for the storage of meaning as well as form. For example, Hintzman’s multiple-trace model (1986) attempts to account for the way in which we form lexical categories. It postulates that every time a child encounters an exemplar of a word such as DOG, the exemplar leaves a trace. From the accumulating set of traces, the child is able to identify certain central characteristics shared by all members of the category– but also to accept that certain deviations from these core values still form part of its experience of the concept DOG.

Sometimes cited in support of exemplar models is the finding that high-frequency irregular syntactic forms tend to resist change over time while low-frequency ones are subject to regularisation. The argument goes that it is not possible for a user to gauge the frequency of a form unless individual tokens of it are stored.

Exemplar models accord well with connectionist approaches, and with the belief (see learning theory) that a first language can be acquired through multiple trial-and-error encounters.

See also: Connectionism

Further reading: Bybee (2001: Chaps 1–2); Harley (2001: 288–93)

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