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Grammatical knowledge has often been investigated in wug tests, in which participants inflect pseudo-words. It was argued that in inflecting these pseudo-words, speakers apply their knowledge of word formation. However, it remains unclear what exactly this knowledge is and how it is learned. According to one theory, the knowledge is best characterised as abstractions that specify how units are combined. Another theory maintains that it is best characterised by memory-based analogy. In both cases the knowledge is learned by association based on positive evidence alone. In this paper, we model the classification of pseudo-words to Maltese plurals using a shallow neural network trained with an error-driven learning algorithm. We demonstrate that the classifications mirror those of Maltese speakers in a wug test. Our results indicate that speakers rely on gradient knowledge of a relation between the phonetics of whole words and plural classes, which is learned in an error-driven way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kind of knowledge accounts for linguistic productivity? How is it acquired? For years, debate on these questions has focused on a seemingly obscure domain: inflectional morphology. On one side, theorists inspired by Rumelhart & McClelland's classic error-driven learning model have sought to show how all morphological forms are the products of a single memory-based process, whereas the opposing theories have claimed that irregular forms are processed by qualitatively different mechanisms to rule-governed regulars. This review argues that while the main ideas put forward by Rumelhart & McClelland – that inflectional patterns are learned, and rule-like behaviour emerges from the distribution of forms – appear to be correct, the theory embodied in their model (and those following it) is incompatible with the discriminative nature of learning itself. An examination of the constraints error-driven learning mechanisms impose on theories of morphological processing – along with language learning and human communication itself – is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]