LOT3

Language Acquisition: 

Language Acquisition 3. Elena Lieven, MPI-EVA, Leipzig School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester

Outline for Session 3: 

Outline for Session 3 MAIN TOPICS Errors and the ATOM Errors in syntactic questions Learning more complex constructions Constituency, embedding and island constraints ENDNOTE Complex syntax and input Metalinguistic awareness

Errors in the use of non-nominative subjects: 

Errors in the use of non-nominative subjects

The Agreement/Tense Omission Model (ATOM) [Schütze & Wexler, 1998]: 

The Agreement/Tense Omission Model (ATOM) [Schütze & Wexler, 1998] Predicted to occur: +AGR/+TNS +NOM I’m going He goes +AGR/-TNS +NOM I going He go -AGR/+TNS -NOM Me going Him go Her gone Her went Predicted not to occur (or to occur at levels compatible with noise): +AGR/+TNS -NOM Me am going Him goes

Errors that shouldn’t happen!: 

Errors that shouldn’t happen! Anne: Manchester Him doesn’t And her has Probably her’s a baby A big girl now, her is I think her was crying for me Becky: Manchester Where does him go? Her is gonna make a dinner Him’s eating you, crocodile Abe: Kuczaj Sometimes her barks nice, sometime her don’ts Her has a tummy ache

Testing the ATOM [Pine et al., 2006] : 

Testing the ATOM [Pine et al., 2006] Expected and observed rates of agreement with non-nominative subjects Nina: 3psg he/she him/her Rate Agreeing: Actual 213 10 4.5 Expected (160.8) (62.2) (27.9) Non-agreeing Actual 185 144 Expected (237.2) (91.8)

Nina’s 3psg by gender rates: 

Nina’s 3psg by gender rates Expected rate of non-nominative subjects with agreeing verbs = (3.3) Actual Rate = 1.4 Expected rate of non-nominative subjects with agreeing verbs = (90.4) Actual Rate = 53.8

Errors in syntactic questions: 

Errors in syntactic questions

Errors in questions: 

Omission Where he go Double marking Where does he does go? Non-inversion Where he does go? Agreement errors Where does you go? Case errors Where does her go? Errors in questions

Slide10: 

[Ambridge, Rowland, Theakston, Tomasello (in press)] Adult: Ask her why the dog is sleeping. Child: Why is the dog sleeping? Adult: Ask her where the pig can swim. Child: Where can the pig swim? 4 year olds MAIN RESULT: different number errors for: different wh- words different auxiliaries ‘same’ auxiliary w/ diff number (e.g., do & does)

Accounting for patterns of error: 

Accounting for patterns of error The error rate is low because children are learning constructions with slots High frequency frames should be protected from error Errors will occur when there isn’t a frame

Slide12: 

Data: Adam : 2;3 – 4;10 (Brown 1973) All wh-questions requiring inversion Patterns of wh + auxiliary (e.g. where does, what has) Results: Almost all wh-word + auxiliary combinations are produced either inverted or non-inverted - only 3 out of 49 showed ‘optional inversion’ The combinations that the child inverts are more frequent in the input than those that he fails to invert [Rowland & Pine, 2000]

Errors based on frames?: 

Errors based on frames? Non-inversion M. You don’t throw things C. Why you don’t throw things? Omission Why you like cakes? → Why + X You like cakes Double marking Why don’t you don’t like cakes? → Why don’t + X You don’t like cakes Agreement errors Where does you go? → Where does X go? You

Error rates in syntactic questions: 

Error rates in syntactic questions [Rowland, in submission]

Summary: 

Summary Errors should not be summed across forms Errors can be analysed in terms of patterns in the input Errors, correctly analysed, present important challenges to all theoretical positions that have to answered in terms of the theory

Relating partially incompatible constructions: 

Relating partially incompatible constructions

Gaps with precedents at 3;0: 

Gaps with precedents at 3;0 Brian 3;0 What you doing GAP? 0 What you doing GAP there? ADD there What I owe GAP you? 0 What say GAP? 0 What say my computer GAP? ADD NP Where that come from GAP? Where did that come from? (M) Where’s it gone GAP ? 0 Where’s it gone GAP now ADD now Annie 3;0 Where can he park GAP? Where can N park? What did you hurt GAP? 0 And what did she do GAP? And what did NP do? (M)

Gaps without precedents: 

Gaps without precedents Brian 3;0 What your found GAP?* You found X What I love GAP then?* I love X Where you been to GAP?* I been to X What I bought it in GAP? I bought it in X Annie 3;0 What can we do GAP with that? We can do X with that And what that done GAP?* That done X

Slide19: 

Wh construction: Object of verb/preposition is utterance initial Whato aux V? Verb frame: Object comes after the verb Ns V No Profile determinance (Langacker) Since a question is intended, the Wh construction is schematic for the composite utterance Note that children make mistakes over this: What I found it? What he done it?

Learning more abstract constructions: 

Learning more abstract constructions

Slide21: 

Building up constructions from prior constructions Schematisation and analogy Constituency, embedding and island constraints

Building new constructions from old parts: 

Building new constructions from old parts

Diessel & Tomasello: 

Diessel & Tomasello

S-COMPLEMENTSDiessel & Tomasello, Cognitive Linguistics (2001): 

S-COMPLEMENTS Diessel & Tomasello, Cognitive Linguistics (2001) Subjects: Adam, Eve, Sarah, Naomi, Peter, Nina - 1 to 5 years Complex Ss: 2807 tokens Examples from Sarah: Examples from Nina: I think he’s gone See that monkey crying I think it’s in here See Becca sleeping I think my daddy took it See that go I think I saw one See my hands are washed it’s a crazy bone, I think See he bites me I think dis is de bowl See him lie down

Slide25: 

% Subjects in Complex Ss 1-P 2-P 3-P Lex Imp Guess 100 -- -- -- -- Bet 100 -- -- -- -- Mean 52 48 -- -- -- Know 36 55 05 04 -- Think 85 13 02 -- -- Wish 97 -- -- 03 -- Hope 88 12 -- -- -- See 07 01 01 -- 91 Look -- -- -- -- 100 Watch -- -- 11 -- 89 Remember 6 6 -- -- 88 - Virtually no complementizers - Virtually no non-present tenses - Virtually no modals or negations

RELATIVE CLAUSESDiessel & Tomasello, Cognitive Linguistics (2000): 

RELATIVE CLAUSES Diessel & Tomasello, Cognitive Linguistics (2000) - Subjects: 4 CHILDES children from 1;9 to 5;1 - Total of 324 relative clauses Here’s the toy that goes around. That’s the sugar that fell out. There’s the ball I bought This’s the bird that sings. That’s the one that goes moo. Here’s the boy that ran into the water.

Slide27: 

Earliest All NP ONLY: “The girl that came with us” .05 .19 PRESENTATIONALS “This is the car that turns around” .75 .47 OBLIQUES “I’m going to the zoo that has snakes” 0 .06 OBJECT “She has a bathtub that goes with it” .20* .26 SUBJECT “The one that not finished is up there” 0 .01 * 50% of these = “Look at all the chairs Peter’s got”

Slide28: 

Brandt, Diessel, & Tomasello (in progress) on German V2 “Relative Clauses” “Grosser Wal, der hat Zahnschmerzen” „Muscheln, die kann man essen“ MOTHER (20% = V2): „Ich habe einen Bauernhofkaese, der kommt von Frankreicher Bauernhof .“ “Real” Relative Clauses “Wo ist ein Wal, der Zahnschmerzen hat” One German child, dense corpus, over 900 relative clauses, age 2 - 5.

Slide29: 

3 years old matches adult

Initial Complex Constructions: 

Initial Complex Constructions Early S-comps and relative clauses have restricted range of forms => esp. in matrix clause No general rules for Wh-Questions (tough movement, binding) => some items easier than others, even when all the words are well established

The construction conspiracy hypothesis[Abbot Smith & Behrens, submitted]: 

The construction conspiracy hypothesis [Abbot Smith & Behrens, submitted] Using German dense corpus [Leo] Development of sein- and werden-passive constructions

Related constructions for the SEIN- and WERDEN-passives: 

Related constructions for the SEIN- and WERDEN-passives

Leo versus mother(werden- versus sein-passive): 

Leo versus mother (werden- versus sein-passive)

Leo’s sein-passive and related constructions (3rd ps. sg. only): 

Leo’s sein-passive and related constructions (3rd ps. sg. only)

Leo’s werden-passives and related constructions (3rd ps. sg. only): 

Leo’s werden-passives and related constructions (3rd ps. sg. only)

Schematisation and analogy: 

Schematisation and analogy

Slide37: 

Schematisation: overlap in lexical material, constituents and meaning Analogy: no shared material, overlap in constituents and meaning car pulling boat truck pulling car Gentner et al.

Analogy: 

Analogy Already have a number of schemas Already know a lot about variations in NPs Create a construction with no lexical material that analogises across the schemas

Slide39: 

“The boy’s chopping the tree” He’s chopping it” “The dog’s eating the toy” He’s eating it” NP’s VERBing NP role of type frequency in VERB and NPs role of varied nouns and single pronoun in NPs role of verb semantics (Goldberg & Casenheiser) cline ANALOGY

Constraining argument overgeneralisations : 

Constraining argument overgeneralisations

Slide41: 

Mommy, can you stay this open? I come closer so it won‘t fall. Don‘t giggle me. She came it over there. I want to stay this rubber band on. Eva won‘t stay things where I want them to be. You cried her. Will you climb me up there? „Kannst Du mich hochklettern?“ Transitivity Overgeneralizations

Slide42: 

Laugh – learned early entrenched no errors Chortle – learned late abstraction achieved no errors Giggle - not entrenched errors Mummy, he’s giggling me  He’s making me giggle

Three constraining factors working over developmental time.: 

Three constraining factors working over developmental time. Entrenchment Preemption Verb Subclasses Growing abstractness of the transitive construction Giggle Chortle Laugh Many overgeneralizations b/c not entrenched No overgeneralizations b/c Verb Islands Low overgeneralzations b/c preemption and verb subclasses in addition to entrenchment

What determines overgeneralisations?: 

Fixed Transitivity Verbs More Entrenched Less Entrenched Hit Strike Take Remove Come Arrive Disappear Vanish Method Children (3-8 yrs.) see transitive event and then are asked “mismatching” question - “What happened with PATIENT?” - “What did AGENT do?” Results More entrenched verbs overgeneralised less often Brooks et al, 1999 What determines overgeneralisations?

Slide45: 

5-year-olds, 8-year-olds and adults heard sentences modelling argument structure errors with high and low frequency verbs She disappeared the rabbit She vanished the rabbit He came her to school He arrived her at school Children asked to indicate whether sentences sounded okay or silly Adults asked to rate sentences on a scale Theakston, 2004 Grammaticality judgements relate to entrenchment

Slide46: 

Adults’ judgments of ungrammatical sentences 0 = ungrammatical, 7 = grammatical

Constituency, embedding and island constraints: 

Constituency, embedding and island constraints

Children can’t learn grammar from what they hear: 

Johnnie should clean his teeth What should Johnnie INVERSION GAPS Children can’t learn grammar from what they hear

Moving constituents not words: 

is Mary happy happy? RULE?: change the order of the first noun and the first verb The boy who is smoking is crazy The boy who is smoking is is crazy __crazy? RULE?: change the order of the SUBJECT and the MAIN VERB The boy is The boy who is smoking Moving constituents not words

Constituency: 

Constituency Of course constituency cannot be learned from linear strings But this is a ‘straw person’ argument and a very naïve view of input: If learning form X, the relevant input consists of form X Children build up knowledge of constituents over time and use this to parse more complex sentences The input can give indirect evidence

Slide51: 

It belongs to me The bike with wheels belongs to me The cats my dog chases belong to our neighbour

Slide52: 

The boy wearing a green hat who I saw yesterday in the park is very nice The boy’s nice The bus is red They are really really good They’re the ones I want The ones over there are the ones I want The boy wearing a green hat is nice The girl who dances The one I saw in the playground The one that turns round is mine Constructions gain more constituents Constituents become more complex Form-meaning mappings become more abstract Over time

Modeling inversion with embedding: 

Modeling inversion with embedding Network trained on well-formed sentences Types and frequencies mimiced the Manchester corpus input Many sentences as follows: Mary is happy Timmy can swim awfully fast Is Mary happy? Can Timmy swim fast? No sentences: The boy who is smoking is crazy Tested on: Is the boy who smoking is crazy?* Is the boy who is smoking crazy? Clear preference for this [Lewis & Elman, 2001]

Unbounded dependencies and island constraints: 

Unbounded dependencies and island constraints Unbounded dependencies cannot be created for every part of a sentence *Who did she see the report that was about She saw the report that was about it *Who did that she knew bother him That she knew X bothered him

Information structure and unbounded dependencies: 

Information structure and unbounded dependencies Backgrounded constructions are islands e.g. restrictive relative clauses and noun complements The potential extraction site must be at least a potential focus domain this introduces a cline of acceptability into grammaticality judgements depending on the degree of backgrounding e.g. some presentational relatives can serve to convey the main assertion of the clause John is the sort of guy that I don’t know a lot of people who think well of [Cullicover] Lambrecht, Van Valin, Goldberg

Where does complex syntax come from?: 

Where does complex syntax come from?

Multi-clausal wh-questions“Who did the lion know that swam in the pond?”: 

Multi-clausal wh-questions “Who did the lion know that swam in the pond?” Very rare in children’s naturalistic speech: 12 children aged 1;2 – 6;0 [Stromswold, 1995] 13,000 utterances with who, what, which 200 with gap in ‘embedded’ clause (e.g. What would’ya like to have? What he want to play with?) and these are relatively simple infinitival complements Experiments are often with older children and sometimes with very unnatural sentences: Some 3-year-olds and more older children show evidence of observing various hypothesised syntactic constraints This has been taken as evidence of innate knowledge of these ‘unlearnable’ constraints However there is here also a cline in adult judgements of acceptability for these structures (Goldberg)

Complex syntax and input: parents[Huttenlocher et al. , 2002]: 

Complex syntax and input: parents [Huttenlocher et al. , 2002] Measures: Proportion of complex sentences (adults) Number of noun phrases per utterance (children) Comprehension task: multi-clausal sentences (children) Results: Proportion of complex sentences by parents the only significant predictor (r = .41, p<.01)

Complex syntax and input: teachers: 

Complex syntax and input: teachers Participants: 40 nursery classrooms: high SES; low SES, mixed SES 1 teacher per class Measures: Teacher: Proportion of complex sentences Number of noun phrases per utterance Observation of ‘Quality of teaching’ Children: Comprehension task: multi-clausal sentences and sentences with varying numbers of noun phrases at time 1 and time 2 Maths task

Results: 

Results Comprehension was related to SES at the beginning of the year The children’s growth scores over the year were not related to SES They were significantly and strongly related to the teacher’s proportional use of complex constructions

End!: 

End!