Lexical reconciliation

In the context of current research in lexical representation these are two fundamental ideas about lexical learning. One holds that the semantics of a word is critically involved in the acquisition of its syntax, another holds that the syntax of the word is critically involved in the acquisition of its semantics. This paper examines the positive results and limitations of the two views, and proposes a reconciliation of the two in which a hypothesized meaning based on observation is the input to the linguistic mapping principles. These derive a predicted s-structure checked against observed syntax. Learning occurs when the two match.