In the last decade, deep artificial neural networks have achieved astounding performance in many natural language processing tasks. Given the high productivity of language, these models must possess effective generalization abilities. It is widely assumed that humans handle linguistic productivity by means of algebraic compositional rules: Are deep networks similarly compositional? After reviewing the main innovations characterizing current deep language processing networks, I discuss a set of studies suggesting that deep networks are capable of subtle grammar-dependent generalizations, but also that they do not rely on systematic compositional rules. I argue that the intriguing behaviour of these devices (still awaiting a full understanding) should be of interest to linguists and cognitive scientists, as it offers a new perspective on possible computational strategies to deal with linguistic productivity beyond rule-based compositionality, and it might lead to new insights into the less systematic generalization patterns that also appear in natural language.

该研究回顾了当前深度学习语言处理网络的主要创新，讨论了一系列研究表明深度网络能够进行微妙的语法依赖性泛化，但也不依赖于系统化的组合规则，这一现象应该引起语言学家和认知科学家的兴趣。

现代人工神经网络中的语言泛化和组合性