In noun compounds in English, the modifying noun may be singular (mouse-eater) or an irregularly inflected plural (mice-eater), but regularly inflected plurals are dispreferred (*rats-eater). This phenomenon has been taken as strong evidence for dual-mechanism theories of lexical representations, which hold that regular (rule-governed) and irregular (exception) items are generated by qualitatively different and innately specified mechanisms. Using corpus analyses, behavioral studies, and computational modeling, we show that the rule-versus-exceptions approach makes a number of incorrect predictions. We propose a new account in which the acceptability of modifiers is determined by a constraint satisfaction process modulated by semantic, phonological, and other factors. The constraints are acquired by the child via general purpose learning algorithms, based on noun compounds and other constructions in the input. The account obviates the regular/irregular dichotomy while simultaneously providing a superior account of the data.

中文翻译：

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语言学习和天赋：化合物研究的一些启示

在英语名词复合中，修饰名词可以是单数 (mouse-eater) 或不规则屈折复数 (mice-eater)，但不推荐使用规则屈折复数 (*rats-eater)。这种现象已被视为词汇表征双重机制理论的有力证据，该理论认为规则（规则支配）和不规则（例外）项目是由性质不同且先天指定的机制产生的。使用语料库分析、行为研究和计算建模，我们表明规则与例外方法会做出许多不正确的预测。我们提出了一个新的解释，其中修饰符的可接受性由语义、语音和其他因素调制的约束满足过程决定。约束是由孩子通过通用学习算法获得的，基于输入中的名词复合和其他结构。该帐户消除了规则/不规则二分法，同时提供了对数据的高级帐户。