AINeutralarXiv – CS AI · 7h ago6/10
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Language Models Learn Constructional Semantics, Not To Mention Syntax: Investigating LM Understanding of Paired-Focus Constructions
Researchers demonstrate that modestly-sized open-source language models can understand rare paired-focus constructions (like "let alone" and "much less"), challenging assumptions that only the largest LLMs grasp complex constructional semantics. The study reveals that semantic understanding of these constructions emerges later in training than syntactic knowledge and correlates with world knowledge acquisition.