1. PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language Acquisition II

2. Language Sponges About 3,000 new words per year, especially in the primary grades As many as 8 new words per day Learning words 12 ms first words 2 yrs 200 words 3 yrs1,000 words 6 yrs 15,000 words How do they do it (and what are they doing)?

3. Language Sponges Learning words General patterns and observations Sounds Meaning Proposed Strategies Fast mapping Whole object Mutual exclusivity Learning Syntax Learning Morphology

4. Early word learning First words (Around 10-15 months) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of phonologically consistent forms 1 word stage typically lasts around 10 months Have learned first 50 words by 15 – 24 months Typically focused on the “here and now”

5. Early word learning Developed in systematic ways Not simply imitation, rather are creative Learned importance of consistency of names First words (Around 10-15 months) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of phonologically consistent forms Idiomorphs - personalized words “Adult words” - Typically context bound (relevant to the immediate environment) Important people, Objects that move, Objects that can be acted upon, Familiar actions Nouns typically appear before verbs

6. What kinds of words? 1-general names “dog” 2- specific names “mommy” 3-action words “bye-bye” 4-modifiers “red” 5-personal/social “yes, no, please” 6-functional “what”

7. Early speech production Transition to speech This is your fis? Your fis? Oh, your fish. No. … my fis. No. My fis! Yes, my fis.

8. Early speech production This is your fis? Transition to speech No, … my fis. Your fis.No, my fis. Oh, your fish.Yes, my fis. Can’t hear the difference? Rejects adult saying fis Can’t produce the correct sounds? Sometimes, but evidence suggests not always the case More general process of simplification “frees up” resources for concentrating on other aspects of language learning

9. Early speech production Common Phonological processes Reduction Delete sounds from words (“da” for dog) Coalescence Combine different syllables into one syllable (“paf” for pacifier) Assimilation Change one sound into a similar sound within the word (“fweet” for sweet) Reduplication One syllable from a multi-syllabic word is repeated (“baba” for bottle) Transition to speech individual diffs, but some common processes

10. Extensions of meaning Extension Finding the appropriate limits of the meaning of words Underextension Applying a word too narrowly Overextension Applying a word too broadly Applying the words to referents

11. Extensions of meaning “tee”

12. Extensions of meaning “tee” 1:9,11

13. Extensions of meaning “tee” 1:9,11 1:10,18

14. Extensions of meaning “tee” “googie” 1:9,11 1:10,18 1:11,1

15. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie”

16. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24

17. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh”

18. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh”

19. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh” 1:11,27 “pushi”

20. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh” 1:11,27 “pushi” 2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh”

21. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh” 1:11,27 “pushi” 2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh” 2:0,20 “biggie googie”

22. Extensions of meaning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh” 1:11,27 “pushi” 2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh” 2:0,20 “biggie googie” One-word-per-referent heuristic If a new word comes in for a referent that is already named, replace it Exception to that was “horse,” but it only lasted a day here

23. Strategies for learning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh” 1:11,27 “pushi” 2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh” 2:0,20 “biggie googie” Expansion and contraction can occur at the same time

24. Strategies for learning 1:9,11 1:10,18 “tee” 1:11,1 1:11,2 “googie” 1:11,24 1:11,25 “tee/hosh” 1:11,26 “hosh” 1:11,27 “pushi” 2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh” 2:0,20 “biggie googie” Child tries different things, if a word doesn’t work then try something else e.g., hosh didn’t for for the large dog, switched to biggie doggie

25. Indeterminacy: Frog Frog Frog? Green? Ugly? Jumping?

26. Quine’s gavagai problem The problem of reference: a word may refer to a number of referents (real world objects) a single object or event has many objects, parts and features that can be referred to Frog Frog? Green? Ugly? Jumping?

27. Learning word meanings Fast mapping (Carey & Bartlett, 1978) Using the context to guess the meaning of a word Learning words Please give me the chromium tray. Not the blue one, the chromium one. All got the olive tray Several weeks later still had some of the meaning

28. Constraints on Word Learning Perhaps children are biased to entertain certain hypotheses about word meanings over others These first guesses save them from logical ambiguity Get them started out on the right track Object-scope (whole object) constraint Taxonomic constraint Mutual exclusivity constraint Learning words Cognitive Constraints (Markman, 1989)

29. Object-scope (whole object) constraint Words refer to whole objects rather than to parts of objects Strategies for learning Dog

30. ‘Show me another lux’ ‘Here is a lux’ Taxonomic constraint Words refer to categories of similar objects Taxonomies rather than thematically related obejcts Strategies for learning

31. But in ‘no-word’ conditions, they would be shown the first picture See this? Can you find another one? Strategies for learning

33. they choose the corkscrew because it is a less well known object for which they don’t have a label yet. ‘Show me a dax’: Mutual exclusivity constraint (Markam and Watchel 1988) Each object has one label & different words refer to separate, non-overlapping categories of objects An object can have only one label Strategies for learning

34. Problem with constraints Most of the constraints proposed apply only to object names. What about verbs? (Nelson 1988) There have been cases where children have been observed violating these constraints Using for example the word ‘car’ only to refer to ‘cars moving on the street from a certain location’ (Bloom 1973) The mutual exclusivity constraint would prevent children from learning subordinate and superordinate information (animal < dog < poodle)

35. The language explosion is not just the result of simple semantic development; the child is not just adding more words to his/her vocabulary. Child is mastering basic syntactic and morphological rules. Language explosion continues

36. Proto-syntax (?) Holophrases Single-word utterances used to express more than the meaning usually attributed to that single word by adults Language explosion continues “dog” might refer to the dog is drinking water May reflect a developing sense of syntax, but not yet knowing how to use it Controversial claim (e.g., see Bloom, 1973)

37. Syntax Basic child grammar (Slobin, 1985) Similarities across all languages Mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes Take 100 utterances and count the number of morphemes per utterance Language explosion continues Daddy coming. Hi, car. Daddy car comed. Two car outside. It getting dark. Allgone outside. Bye-bye outside. # morphemes: 3, 2, 4, 3, 4, 2, 2 ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ separate morphemes ‘allgone’ treated as a single word MLU = morphemes/utterances = 20/7 = 2.86

38. Language explosion continues

39. Syntax Roger Brown proposed 5 stages Stage 1: Telegraphic speech (MLU ~ 1.75; around 24 months) One and two word utterances Debate: learning semantic relations or syntactic (position rules) Language explosion continues Children in telegraphic speech stage are said to leave out the ‘little words’ and inflections: e.g. Mummy shoe NOT Mummy’s shoe Two cat NOT two cats

40. More than two words Stages 2 through 5 Stage 2 (MLU ~2.25) begin to modulate meaning using word order (syntax) Later stages reflect generally more complex use of syntax (e.g., questions, negatives) Language explosion continues Syntax Roger Brown proposed 5 stages

41. Innateness account Pinker (1984, 1989) Semantic bootstrapping How do kids learn the syntax? Child has innate knowledge of syntactic categories and linking rules Child learns the meanings of some content words Child constructs some semantic representations of simple sentences Child makes guesses about syntactic structure based on surface form and semantic meaning

42. “It is in the stimulus” accounts Children do not need innate knowledge to learn grammar Speech to children is not impoverished (Snow, 1977) Children learn grammar by mapping semantic roles (agent, action, patient) onto grammatical categories (subject, verb, object) (e.g. Bates, 1979) How do kids learn the syntax?