1. PSY 369: Psycholinguistics
Language Acquisition

2. Announcements Exam 2 moved to March 6th (1 week from today).
Some other due dates have shifted:
Quiz 4, moved back a week (now Feb 28th)
Hmwk 3, moved to Feb 27th (tonight by 5)

3. 2 sets of data in favor of innateness
If language is learned (and not innate), it must depend on feedback.
What kind of feedback do they get?
Claim: Positive evidence is not sufficient for learning a language
Positive evidence alone is not enough
Negative evidence is also needed, and their isn’t much of that
Critical period for language learning.
Claim: Children must experience language early on to fully learn it

4. What kind of “teaching” do kids get?
Are the kids even aware of mistakes?
The children are apparently aware of the fact that their forms are strange:
Parent: Where’s Mommy?
Child: Mommy goed to the store
Parent: Mommy goed to the store?
Child: NO! Daddy, I say it that way, not you

5. Positive and negative evidence
What kind of feedback is available for learning?
Positive evidence: Kids hear grammatical sentences
Negative evidence: information that a given sentence is ungrammatical
Kids are not told which sentences are ungrammatical (no negative evidence)

6. What kind of “teaching” do kids get?
How much Positive Evidence is there (in CDS)?
Estimated 5000 – 7000 utterances a day
Between ¼ and 1/3 are questions (“What is…?” “Are you …?”
Over 20% are not “full” adult sentences (typically Noun or prepositional phrases)
Only about 15% have typical English SVO form
Roughly 45% of all maternal utterances began with one of 17 words (e.g., “what”, “that”, “it”, “you”)
Cameron-Faulkner, et al (2003)
So what kids do hear may be somewhat limited
but maybe this simpler/smaller set helps them learn

7. Negative evidence
Negative evidence could come in various conceivable forms.
“The sentence Bill a cookie ate is not a sentence in English, Timmy. No sentence with SOV word order is.”
Upon hearing Bill a cookie ate, an adult might
Not understand
Look pained
Rephrase the ungrammatical sentence grammatically

8. Kids resist instruction…
McNeill (1966)
Child: Nobody don’t like me.
Adult: No, say ‘nobody likes me.’
[repeats eight times]
Adult: No, now listen carefully; say ‘nobody likes me.’
Child: Oh! Nobody don’t likes me.

9. Kids resist instruction…
Cazden (1972) (observation attributed to Jean Berko Gleason)
Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
Adult: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
Child: Yes.
Adult: What did you say she did?
Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
Adult: Did you say she held them tightly?
Child: No, she holded them loosely.
So there doesn’t seem to be a lot of explicit negative evidence, and what there is the kids often resist

10. Negative evidence via feedback?
Do kids get “implicit” negative evidence?
Do adults understand grammatical sentences and not understand ungrammatical ones?
Do adults respond positively to grammatical sentences and negatively to ungrammatical ones?

11. Negative evidence via feedback?
Brown & Hanlon (1970):
Case study of “Adam” - looked at things that were said to him by adults, and what he said to them
Adults understood 42% of the grammatical sentences.
Adults understood 47% of the ungrammatical ones.
Adults expressed approval after 45% of the grammatical sentences.
Adults expressed approval after 45% of the ungrammatical sentences.
Suggests that there isn’t a lot of good negative evidence.

12. Enough feedback?
One of the striking things about child language is how few errors they actually make.
For negative feedback to work, the kids have to make the errors (so that it can get the negative response).
But they don’t make enough relevant kinds of errors to determine the complex grammar.
Pinker, Marcus and others, conclude that much of this stuff must be innate.
But this isn’t the only view. There is an ongoing debate about whether there are rules, or whether these patterns of behavior can be learned based on the language evidence that is available to the kids

13. Critical (sensitive) periods
Certain behavior is developed more quickly within a critical period than outside of it. This period is biologically determined.
Examples:
Imprinting in ducks (Lorenz, ; Hess, 1973)
Ducklings will follow the first moving thing they see
Only happens if they see something moving within the first few hours (after 32 hours it won’t happen) of hatching
Binocular cells in humans
Cells in visual system that respond only to input from both eyes.
If these cells don’t get input from both eyes within first year of life, they don’t develop

14. Critical (sensitive) periods
Certain behavior is developed more quickly within a critical period than outside of it. This period is biologically determined.
Some environmental input is necessary for normal development, but biology determines when the organism is responsive to that input.
That “when” is the critical period

15. Critical period for language
Lenneberg (1967) proposed that there is a critical period for human language
It assumes that language acquisition must occur before the end of the critical period
Estimates range from 5 years up to onset of puberty

16. Evidence for critical period for language
Feral Children
Children raised in the wild or with reduced exposure to human language
What is the effect of this lack of exposure on language acquisition?
Two classic cases
Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron
Genie

17. Victor, The Wild Boy of Aveyron
Found in 1800 near the outskirts of Aveyron, France
Estimated to be about 7-years-old
Considered by some to be the first documented case of autism
Neither spoke or responded to speech
Taken to and studied by Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, and educator of deaf-mute and retarded children
Never learned to speak and his receptive language ability was limited to a few simple commands.
Described by Itard as “an almost normal boy who could not speak”

18. Genie
Found in Arcadia, California in 1970, was not exposed to human language until age 13.5.
Raised in isolation a situation of extreme abuse
Genie could barely walk and could not talk when found
Dr. Susan Curtiss made great efforts to teach her language, and she did learn how to talk, but her grammar never fully developed.
Only capable of producing telegraphic utterances (e.g. Mike paint or Applesauce buy store)
Used few closed-class morphemes and function words
Speech sounded like that of a 2-year-old

19. Genie By age of 17 (after 4 years of extensive training)
Vocabulary of a 5 year old
Poor syntax (telegraphic speech mostly)
Examples
Mama wash hair in sink
At school scratch face
I want Curtiss play piano
Like go ride yellow school bus
Father take piece wood. Hit. Cry.

20. The forbidden experiment
Why do we talk? video Part 4 (start at 5 min mark)
Oxana Malaya
Isolated birds (continues in part 5, stop at 2:30 mark)
zebra finches raised in isolation

21. What Do These Cases Tell Us?
Suggestive of the position that there is a critical period for first language learning (in particular for syntax and phonological development)
If child is not exposed to language during early childhood (prior to the age of 6 or 7), then the ability to learn syntax will be impaired while other abilities are less strongly affected
Not uncontroversial: Victor and Genie and children like them were deprived in many ways other than not being exposed to language
Genie stopped talking after age 30 and was institutionalized shortly afterward (Rymer, 1993)

22. What Do These Cases Tell Us?
Suggestive of the position that there is a critical period for first language learning (in particular for syntax and phonological development)
Why?
Nativist explanation (see pg 79 of text)
Maturational explanation: “less is more”

23. Second language learning
Learning a new language
What if we already know one language, but want to learn another?
Adults learning another language typically have a persistent foreign accent – perhaps a critical period for phonology (Flege & Hillenbrand, 1984)
Adults typically do better initially at learning a new language compared to kids, but kids typically do better over the long term (Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1982)

24. Second language learning
Johnson and Newport (1989)
Native Chinese/Korean speakers moving to US
Task: Listen to sentences and judge whether grammatically correct
Test score
Age of arrival 2 17
R = -.87
Types of sentences used
Past tense
Plural
Third person singular
Present progressive
Determiners
Pronominalization
Particle movement
Subcategorization
Auxillaries
Yes/no questions
Wh-questions
Word order
Test score
Age of arrival 17 40
R = -.16

25. Second language learning
Johnson and Newport (1989)
Native Chinese/Korean speakers moving to US
Task: Listen to sentences and judge whether grammatically correct
Concluded that around the age of 16 something happens
Different factors operate on language acquisition before and after the age of 16
Types of sentences used
Past tense
Plural
Third person singular
Present progressive
Determiners
Pronominalization
Particle movement
Subcategorization
Auxillaries
Yes/no questions
Wh-questions
Word order
Birdsong and Molis (2001)
Replicated the Johnson and Newport study in Spanish/English speakers.
Did not find a discontinuity around the age of 16

26. Effects of the Critical Period
Learning a language:
Under 7 years: perfect command of the language possible
Ages 8- c.15: Perfect command less possible progressively
Age 15-: Imperfect command possible
But these claims are far from universally accepted

27. Bilinguals & Polyglots
Many people speak more than one language
Tucker (1999) - multilinguals outnumber monolinguals
What is the impact of knowing/using more than one language?
Factors affecting second language acquisition?
What does the lexicon look like?
Interesting effects in bilinguals
Interference
Code switching
Cognitive advantages

28. Second language acquisition
Contexts of childhood bilingualism
Simultaneous
Both languages are acquired at the same time
Vocabulary growth of bilinguals is similar to that of monolinguals
Some aspects of acquisition may be slowed, but by age of 4 typically caught up
Doesn’t seem to matter whether languages are “related” or not (e.g., English - French versus English Japanese)
Can achieve “fluency” in both languages
Sequential acquisition
The second language is learned after a first language
When the second language (L2) is acquired is important
Early versus late learning (e.g., see the Johnson and Newport study)

29. Second language acquisition
Frequency of usage of both languages
How often and in what contexts do you use the two languages
“Use it or lose it” - language attrition
Mode of acquisition
Native bilingualism - growing up in a two language environment
Immersion - schooling provided in a non-native language
Submersion - one learner surrounded by non-native speakers
Language dominance effects
Relative fluency of L1 and L2 may impact processing

30. Bilingual Representations
How do we represent linguistic information in a bilingual lexicon?
Probably depends on many of the factors just discussed
Let’s look at some models and research focusing on the situation where L1 is dominant relative to L2

31. Models of the bilingual lexicons
Potter et al (1984): Separate Stores Models – separate lexicons for each language L1 L2
CONCEPTS
Word Association Model L1 L2
CONCEPTS
Concept Mediation Model
L1=First Language
L2=Second Language

32. Models of the bilingual lexicons
Paivio, Clark, & Lambert (1988): Common Stores Models – words from both languages in same store
L1 & L2
CONCEPTS
L1=First Language
L2=Second Language

33. Revised Hierarchical Model
The results are mixed, supporting more complex models
May be different in different bilinguals depending on things like age of acquisition, relative proficiency, etc. L1 L2
concepts
lexical
links
conceptual
Kroll & Stewart (1994)
Proposed that the fluency of L2 needs to be considered in the processing model

34. Interesting effects in bilinguals
Interference
Code switching
Cognitive advantages
Types of sentences used
Past tense
Plural
Third person singular
Present progressive
Determiners
Pronominalization
Particle movement
Subcategorization
Auxillaries
Yes/no questions
Wh-questions
Word order

35. Interesting effects in bilinguals
Interference
Does knowing two languages lead to interference?
When found, interference is at multiple levels
Phonological - least amount of interference
Lexical - mixing words from different languages
Initially, appear to use a one word per thing strategy
But as they realize there that they’re speaking two language, then they’ll use words from both languages simultaneously
Syntactic
Until year two, may use only one syntactic system which is common to both languages
Then a brief period with two sets of lexical items, but still a common syntax
Finally, two lexicons and two sets of syntax
Types of sentences used
Past tense
Plural
Third person singular
Present progressive
Determiners
Pronominalization
Particle movement
Subcategorization
Auxillaries
Yes/no questions
Wh-questions
Word order

36. Interesting effects in bilinguals
Determine who or what is the one performing the action.
The waitress pushes the cowboys.
The telephones pushes the cowboys.
Kisses the table the apple.
The baskets the teacher kicks.
As a native speaker of English we can use many cues:
Word order
Animacy
Verb agreement
Not all languages use the same cues to the same extent
e.g., German doesn’t rely as much on word order, but relies more on agreement processes
Sentence 1: waitress doing the pushing (even though the semantics/real world knowledge is strange). Both word order and agreement support this view.
Sentence 2: very strange, position favors telephone, but verb and animacy suggest cowboys
Sentence 3: English word order suggests object follows the verb
Sentence 4: animacy and agreement suggest teacher as actor

37. Interesting effects in bilinguals
Determine who or what is the one performing the action.
The waitress pushes the cowboys.
The telephones pushes the cowboys.
Kisses the table the apple.
The baskets the teacher kicks.
Kilborn (1989, 1994)
Found that bilinguals (English as second language) typically carry over the dominant processing strategies from their native languages.
This interacts with their level of fluency in the second language
Sentence 1: waitress doing the pushing (even though the semantics/real world knowledge is strange). Both word order and agreement support this view.
Sentence 2: very strnage, position favors telephone, but verb and animacy suggest cowboys
Sentence 3: English word order suggests object follows the verb
Sentence 4: animacy and agreement suggest teacher as actor

38. “I want a motorcycle VERDE”
Code switching
When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language
“I want a motorcycle VERDE”
Switching is systematic, not random

39. Code switching
When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language
“I want a motorcycle VERDE”
The Spanish adjective “verde” follows a grammatical rule that is observed by most bilingual speakers that code-switch
“I want a VERDE motorcycle”
Would be incorrect
because language switching can occur only if the adjective is placed according to the rules of the language of the adjective
In this case, the adjective is in Spanish; therefore, the adjective must follow the Spanish grammatical rule that states that the noun must precede the adjective

40. “I want a motorcycle VERDE”
Code switching
When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language
“I want a motorcycle VERDE”
Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehend sentences containing code-switched words
May be due to a “mental switch mechanism” that determines which of the bilingual’s two mental dictionaries are “on” or “off” during language comprehension.
This mental switch is responsible for selecting the appropriate mental dictionary to be employed during the comprehension of a sentence.
E.g., if reading an English, a Spanish code-switched word is encountered, the mental switch must disable the English linguistic system, and enable the Spanish linguistic system.

41. “I want a motorcycle VERDE”
Code switching
When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language
“I want a motorcycle VERDE”
Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehend sentences containing code-switched words
This time difference depends on similarity of the languages
Chinese-English bilinguals take longer to recognize English code-switched words in Chinese sentences only if the English words contain initial consonant-consonant (e.g., flight) clusters, simply because the Chinese language lacks this phonotactic structure.
Another current view suggests that language dominance (i.e., which language is used more frequently) plays an important role in code-switching

42. Cognitive advantages
Some evidence suggest that being bilingual can have an impact on cognition outside of language
Bialystok and colleagues
Bilinguals are very proficient at switching between languages
Bilinguals also have to be good at suppressing the contextually inappropriate language