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Series:   Elements in Construction Grammar

Copilots for Linguists

AI, Constructions, and Frames

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2023

Tiago Timponi Torrent ,
Thomas Hoffmann ,
Arthur Lorenzi Almeida  and
Mark Turner
Tiago Timponi Torrent
Affiliation:
Federal University of Juiz de Fora
Thomas Hoffmann
Affiliation:
Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt / Hunan Normal University
Arthur Lorenzi Almeida
Affiliation:
Federal University of Juiz de Fora
Mark Turner
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University

Summary

AI can assist the linguist in doing research on the structure of language. This Element illustrates this possibility by showing how a conversational AI based on a Large Language Model (AI LLM chatbot) can assist the Construction Grammarian, and especially the Frame Semanticist. An AI LLM chatbot is a text-generation system trained on vast amounts of text. To generate text, it must be able to find patterns in the data and mimic some linguistic capacity, at least in the eyes of a cooperative human user. The authors do not focus on whether AIs “understand” language. Rather, they investigate whether AI LLM chatbots are useful tools for linguists. They reframe the discussion from what AI LLM chatbots can do with language to what they can do for linguists. They find that a chatty LLM can labor usefully as an eliciting interlocutor, and present precise, scripted routines for prompting conversational LLMs.
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Keywords

Construction GrammarAIlarge language modelFrameNetlinguistics
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Construction Grammar
Online ISBN: 9781009439190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 01 February 2024

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