大模型概率无法可靠区分语法正确与错误句子,挑战其语言能力判断力。
Large Language Model probabilities cannot distinguish between possible and impossible language
- 通过模型内部表征分析语法判断机制
- 语义和语用异常句的困惑度反而更高
- 质疑仅靠概率判断语法能力的有效性
关于大语言模型能否区分可能与不可能语言的争议测试中,尽管有证据显示模型对语法上不可能的语言敏感,但该证据因测试材料可靠性受质疑。本文通过模型内部表示,直接考察大模型对‘语法正确/错误’的表征。在新基准上,我们从4个模型获取概率,计算最小对的困惑度差异,比较语法正确句与(i)低频语法句、(ii)语法错误句、(iii)语义异常句、(iv)语用异常句的概率表现。若概率可反映语法边界,语法错误应表现出显著更高的困惑度。结果未发现语法错误条件的独特困惑度峰值,反而是语义和语用异常条件始终具有更高困惑度。因此,我们证明概率不能作为模型内部句法知识的可靠代理。有关模型能区分可能与不可能语言的说法,需采用新方法验证。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
A controversial test for Large Language Models concerns the ability to discern possible from impossible language. While some evidence attests to the models' sensitivity to what crosses the limits of grammatically impossible language, this evidence has been contested on the grounds of the soundness of the testing material. We use model-internal representations to tap directly into the way Large Language Models represent the 'grammatical-ungrammatical' distinction. In a novel benchmark, we elicit probabilities from 4 models and compute minimal-pair surprisal differences, juxtaposing probabilities assigned to grammatical sentences to probabilities assigned to (i) lower frequency grammatical sentences, (ii) ungrammatical sentences, (iii) semantically odd sentences, and (iv) pragmatically odd sentences. The prediction is that if string-probabilities can function as proxies for the limits of grammar, the ungrammatical condition will stand out among the conditions that involve linguistic violations, showing a spike in the surprisal rates. Our results do not reveal a unique surprisal signature for ungrammatical prompts, as the semantically and pragmatically odd conditions consistently show higher surprisal. We thus demonstrate that probabilities do not constitute reliable proxies for model-internal representations of syntactic knowledge. Consequently, claims about models being able to distinguish possible from impossible language need verification through a different methodology.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。