The Modular Online Growth and Use of Language (MOGUL) project is the cover term name for any research on language carried out using the Modular Cognition Framework (MCF).
Basic assumptions MOGUL project research takes as its premise that the mind is modular in character, i.e. composed of functionally specialised systems. Two of these are specifically linguistic in nature and are unique to human beings. They interact with other expert systems such as vision both during the growth of language in the mind and during the processing of language (in comprehension, production, thinking, and even dreaming). Explanations are framed within a processing perspective. This, however, does not mean representations and their properties are left aside. Typically, research into linguistic theory and description avoids dealing with mental processes operating in real time; instead, the focus is on abstract structures without recourse to processing explanations. Psycholinguists, by contrast, focus on real-time activity rather than on issues surrounding abstract linguistic structure. However, despite its declared processing perspective, the framework used in this research allows issues surrounding real-time mental activity to be integrated with accounts of the representations that make up an individual’s current linguistic knowledge.
The background assumption is that the functionally specialised cognitive systems that comprise the mind as a whole and which have evolved over time include two systems (or one depending on the linguistic-theoretical perspective adopted) which are responsible for human linguistic ability. Language cognition, however, engages all of the mind's systems and many at the same time. In other words, of all the systems that are engaged in language performance use only the two of them handle linguistic structure but it is the two that mark language as a specifically human ability. These two systems handle, respectively, phonological (speech or sign language) structure and syntactic structure, in other words, 1) the phonological system and 2) the syntactic system. Other cognitive systems closely associated with language processing and development are 3) the conceptual system, which handles all abstract meanings but is inevitably richly connected with the syntactic system and 4) the auditory system which handles all sound representations based on acoustic input from external environment and is inevitably richly connected with the phonological system whereby specific auditory input gets associated with phonological structures, and finally 5) the visual system which handles all visual representations based on visual input from the external environment, some of which will happen to be patterns created by writing and (language) signing. The two linguistic systems form a linear chain so that phonological structures can be directly associated and hence coactivate each other via the interface between them. The phonological system receives input from the two perceptual (visual and auditory) systems and the syntactic system receives input from the conceptual system. A single word like jump, for example, is actually a composite structure arising from an association between several different types of representation. The spoken version will be a chain of:
an auditory representation (AS) of the sound "tree" a phonological representation ((PS) of its speech structure (expressed using the conventions determined by the preferred linguistic theory) a syntactic representation (SS) of its identity as a noun, verb, preposition, etc. (expressed using the conventions determined by the preferred linguistic theory) a conceptual representation (CS) of its meaning
The word chain can be displayed using the following abbreviations always using 'S' for ' "structure" (a synonym for representation): AS/PS/SS/CSProcessing works in both directions depending where the initial input comes from and then after that going in both directions in principle until the overall best-fit is found. In other words, processing is parallel, incremental and bidirectional. https://online.bankofscotland.co.uk/personal/logon/login.jsp Linguists may note that what is conventionally thought of as the scope of phonetics is expressed here as the domain of auditory structure. Similarly, what is conventionally thought of as the scope of semantics and pragmatics falls within the scope of conceptual structure. None of these linguistic areas are treated here as the domain of one or other of the two linguistic systems: the term linguistic is reserved for the two above-mentioned systems that process and store linguistic structure.
Development over time An important portion of the MOGUL account is devoted to the claim that the acquired (and atrophied, or lost) linguistic structures are natural by-products of online processing. This means that acquisitional mechanisms do not exist as such, but are embodied in the operations of the parser. This claim is made explicit in Acquisition by Processing Theory (APT). Processing concepts (activation levels, competition and so on) are used to explain a) how cognitive representations are formed within and across each cognitive systems as a result of online processing and b) how existing representations develop or lose their competitive edge when competing online with other candidates for participation in some online task. APT is a hypothesis put forward by Sharwood Smith and Truscott as an integral part of the MCF and is applicable not only to language but to all kinds of cognitive development (for a similar approach to acquisition which is framed within an emergentist perspective, see O'Grady 2005).O'Grady, W. (2005). Syntactic Carpentry: An Emergentist Approach to Syntax. Mahwah, NJ.
All cognitive development and therefore language development as well is the lingering effect of processing. As the mind attempts to build mental representations online, various structures at its disposal are activated. Structures compete with one another to be selected for the current representation. As a simple example, on hearing the word "ship" an English speaker's processing system will activate various candidate structures so (for instance) the phonological structures underlying "sheep" and "shape" will compete for selection (and other candidates as well, including phonological structures belonging to other languages known to the listener; see Dijkstra and van Heuven, 2002.Dijkstra, A.F.J. & W.J.B. van Heuven (2002). The Architecture of the Bilingual Word Recognition System: From Identification to Decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5/3. 175-197.). The "ship" structure is normally selected as the best fit, and thereby its likelihood of being selected in the future is correspondingly strengthened by a small amount. In this way, a basic "use it or lose it" principle is invoked; this development principle works throughout the cognitive system as a whole.
As we match various types of cognitive structure available to us in order to find the best fit for unfamiliar input from the environment new connections are developed, initially with the relevant structures possessing a low resting level of activation'''. This means they will have a relatively poor chance of selection for future instances of the same input. However, the more they are selected the more they will show up in the observable behaviour of the individual concerned.
Although the frequency in which we experience given phenomena influences our development, cognitive growth is not an automatic consequence of experience; our mind is modular, and each cognitive system is controlled by its own unique processing principles. This limits, for instance, what we can learn to see or hear or say; seeing, hearing and speaking each involve dedicated processing units, which control their own internal operations. In this way, high-frequency events in the environment may still not impact development because the relevant parts of our mind are incapable of processing them. This may be because a) the relevant cognitive systems are simply not designed to do so, or b) they are not yet ready to process them, because their internal principles require some prerequisite state of affairs before the potential new input can be integrated. By the same token, an internal operation may be halted because although one processing unit has processed input, an adjacent processing unit (module) with which it is connected is not in a ready state to cooperate (find matching structures within its own memory store). Hence frequent events in the external environment may indeed get processed by some part(s) of the cognitive system but still not by every relevant part.
Comprehension and production The cognitive systems involved in language comprehension work in two directions. Production involves a physical response to internal events, the creation of a message to be conveyed. This requires articulation of different parts of the body, following the commands of motor structures. As mentioned earlier, meanings in the conceptual processor are matched with syntactic structures which in turn are matched with phonological structures; this structural chain continues to be built following different routes according to the selected mode of articulation. The required motor structures that drive the articulation of speech will be different from those involved in writing or signing.
As an example of what processing online means, let us examine speech production in a fluent speaker. The construction of a message will be initiated in the conceptual processor. Conceptual structures will be chosen, which then activate the interface between the conceptual and syntactic system. The conceptual structures are matched up with particular syntactic structures forming the first stage – in other words, a CS+SS (conceptual structure plus syntactic structure) chain. A semantic argument structure in CS code which specifies an action with an agent (the doer) and a patient (what is acted upon), as in "a boy hit the ball", is matched up with a syntactic argument structure with the requisite verb and noun phrases (determiner phrases), each in the appropriate case: one in nominative case and the other in objective case. The interface between SS and PS kicks in, causing various appropriate phonological structures to be activated; an SS/PS match is made, the outcome now being a CS+SS+PS chain. As is generally the case, more than one option may be selected in parallel before one particular option is settled on. Structural chains are formed incrementally; as more CS is built so more SS and PS are constructed with more context, earlier options that were provisionally selected are dropped as the representation develops and becomes more complex. The PS is matched up with motor structures responsible for the articulation of speech, and the utterance is produced. Each type of structure (AS, PS, SS, CS and so on) is constructed in its own particular module and by its own unique integrative processor, following its own particular set of principles. Comprehension is a similar process, with the general direction going in reverse; auditory structures are formed in response to acoustic stimuli in the environment. These auditory structures match PS and SS, finally culminating in the interpretation of the message (its conceptual structure).
Perception and affect (POpS and AfS)