Language Acquisition Under Challanging Circumstances

Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem 500 - First words

First words: Form, content, rate and the vocabulary spurt.

Reading: Kim M, McGregor K.K, Thompson C.K. 2000. Early lexical development in English- and Korean-speaking children: language-general and language-specific patterns. J Child Lang. 27(2):225-54.

First 50 Words of 1 Israeli girl (Keren) - in Order of Acquisition

From: Dromi, E. 1987. Early Lexical Development. Cambridge UP.

Word Gloss Word Gloss 1 buba doll 26 baat = taba'at ring 2 myau = xatul cat 27 nadned swing 3 dubi teddy 28 mayim water 4 tutu = rakevet train 29 ken yes 5 ia = xamor donkey 30 nyar paper 6 hupa for contact 31 apit spoon 7 hine here 32 cet go out, get out 8 cifcif = cipor bird 33 uga cake, cookie 9 tiktak = sha'on clock 34 dod uncle = man 10 ima Mommy 35 etze this, it 11 pil elephant 36 et pen 12 mu = para cow 37 od more, another 13 pisa = peca sore 38 day enough! no more 14 toda thanks 39 imaima unclear 15 oto = mxonit car 40 tik bag, purse 16 bamba pretzel 41 boi(li) come (to me) 17 aba Daddy 42 mita bed 18 am = oxel eating 43 . nuf = yanshuf owl 19 haw = kelev dog 44 laa)mod (to) stand, get up 20 kaki poop 45 te tea 21 ze this, it 46 xam hot 22 ix = fuya yucky 47 nok = tinok baby 23 en allgone 48 noranora = meod,nora very 24 apchi = lehitatesh sneeze 49 kuku peekaboo 25 or light 50 kax take, Masc. Sg. Imp. 2 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words What is a word?

From comprehensible words to meaningful words

 Consistent phonetic shape similar in many cases to the adult phonetic shape  Consistent use in similar though not identical contexts  Repeated production until an adequate response is achieved  Use of gestures (in a schema)  Consistent feedback

Meaningful words have similar meaning in the child and the adult lexicon

Early lexical acquisition: content

 People  Animals  Food  Body parts  Clothing  Vehicles  Household items  Space and motion  Social routines  Activities

Keren’s full sample of 337 words (based on repeated use in similar contexts) falls into the following categories: words for objects (59%) including names and all other nouns, activities (14%), adjectives (4%), social routines (7%), unclassified words for which the category is not obvious (16%). Are the proportions the same for the first 50 words?

The unclassified words take a bigger chunk at the beginning.

How many of the first 10 words belong to each category? Of the first 20 words?

Horizontal vs. vertical acquisition.

At the beginning of the one-word phase, children show a tendency to acquire words of different semantic fields – horizontal acquisition. Later on, they add words of the same semantic field – vertical acquisition.

2 3 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words In-class assignment: First 50 Words of 3 American Children - in Order of Acquisition

From: Stoel-Gammon, C. & J. Cooper, 1984. Patterns of early lexical and phonological development. Journal Child Language 11: 247-272, Table 4

Daniel Will Sarah 12;2 - 16;2 11;0 - 16;2 12;2 - 19;0 1 light 26 nose 1 baby 26 apple 1 uh-oh 26 ticktock 2 uh-oh 27 fire 2 mommy 27 nose 2 alldone 27 ball 3 wha that 28 hot 3 doggie 28 bird 3 light 28 go 4 wow 29 yoghourt 4 juice 29 alldone 4 down 29 bump 5 banana 30 pee-pee 5 bye-bye 30 orange 5 shoes 30 pop-pop = fire 6 kitty 31 juice 6 daddy 31 bottle 6 baby 31 out 7 baby 32 ball 7 milk 32 coat 7 don't throw 32 hee-haw 8 moo 33 wack-wack 8 cracker 33 hot 8 moo 33 eat 9 quack 34 frog 9 done 34 bib 9 bite 34 neigh 10 cookie 35 hello 10 ball 35 hat 10 three 35 meow 11 nice 36 yuk 11 shoe 36 more 11 hi 36 sit 12 rock [N] 37 aoole 12 teddy 37 ear 12 cheese 37 woof-woof 13 clock 38 Big Bird 13 book 38 nitenite 13 up 38 bah 14 sock 39 walk 14 kitty 39 paper 14 quack-quack 39 hoo-hoo = owl 15 woof-woof 40 Ernie 15 hi 40 toast 15 oink-oink 40 bee 16 daddy 41 horse 16 Alex 41 O'Toole 16 coat 41 tree 17 bubble 42 more 17 no (no) 42 bath 17 beep-beep 42 mi-mi = ferry 18 hi 43 mommy 18 door 43 down 18 keys 43 ss = snake 19 shoe 44 bunny 19 dolly 44 duck 19 cycle 44 ooh-ooh = monkey 20 up 45 my 20 wha tha 45 leaf 20 mama 45 yack-yack =talk 21 bye-bye 46 nut 21 cheese 46 cookie 21 daddy 46 hohoho = Santa 22 bottle 47 orange 22 oh wow 47 lake 22 siren sound 47 bye bye 23 no 48 block 23 oh 48 car 23 grr 48 doll 24 rocky [V] 49 nite-nit 24 button 49 rock 24 more 49 kite 25 eye 50 milk 25 eye 50 box 25 off 50 Muriel

Which word category is most frequent? Why? Is the pace the same for all children?

Benedict, K. (1979). Early lexical development: comprehension and production. Journal of Child Language 6, 183-200

3 4 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words

Is there a difference between comprehension and production?

Are there more nouns then verbs in all languages?

Kim M, McGregor K.K, Thompson C.K. 2000. Early lexical development in English- and Korean-speaking children: language-general and language-specific patterns. J Child Lang. 27(2):225-54.

1. Is there a significant difference in the composition of early productive vocabulary between Korean- and English-learning children? 2. Within groups of Korean- and English-learning, do nouns or verbs predominate in the early productive vocabularies? 3. Is there a significant difference in the input frequency of nouns and verbs between Korean- and English-speaking caregivers‘ speech? 4. Is there a significant difference in the saliency of nouns and verb (as defined by final utterance position, single-word utterances, and a high consistency of morphological marking) between Korean- and English-speaking caregivers‘ speech? 5. Is there a significant difference in the caregivers‘ interaction style between Korean- and English-speaking caregivers?

Input factors

Syntactic and semantic analyses at the word level • English-speaking caregivers produced a significantly greater number of nouns and Korean caregivers used a significantly greater number of verbs. • Both groups used a similar number of verb types in their language samples. • English-speaking caregivers used significantly more concrete noun types. • Korean caregivers used significantly more action verb tokens. Syntactic analyses at the utterance level • In utterance-initial position, the Korean caregivers produced significantly more nouns, whereas the English speaking caregivers produced more verbs.

5 6 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words • In utterance-ﬁnal position, the English speaking caregivers used more nouns (concrete), the Korean caregivers used signiﬁcantly more verbs (action verbs). • Occurrence of morphological cues • Neither verbs nor nouns are consistently inflected in English. • Verbs are consistently inflected in Korean. • Pragmatic analysis (topic of utterance) • There was a similar number of naming oriented utterances in both languages. • There was a greater proportion of activity oriented utterances in the speech of the Korean caregivers.

How is word meaning acquired? Markman, E. M. 1994. Constraints on word meaning in early language acquisition. Lingua 92, 199-227

Sources of information:  Grammatical form class  Inference from communicative intent  Meticulous (careful) caregiver  Word learning constraints

Word learning constraints  Taxonomic - terms refer to entities of the same kind (rather than to the thematic relation between objects) – the labeling/naming game  Whole object – a novel label refers to an object rather than its parts  Mutual exclusivity – one label for each object – motivates reference to parts and properties and overrides the taxonomic assumption leading to proper names These constraints are modulated by nonlinguistic context, by children problem solving and processing abilities and by the pragmatics and syntax of the language. The constraints are default assumptions – probabilistic biases that provide a good first guess. These are constraints as part of a theory of learning rather than internal constraints a-la UG. As such they are not special purpose mechanisms.

First words of a bilingual child (Shelli) – classified

From: Berman, R. 1977. The role of proper nouns at the one-word stage. TAU ms. Berman, R. 1978. Early verbs. International Journal Psycholinguistics 5: 21-29

6 7 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words Age People Nursery words Other

7 8 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words Word Gloss Word Gloss Word Gloss 18 mos idzi = Itsi father alo = hello phone am = hot xam uti= Ruti mother shshsh sleeping doi dog, Dolly lala= Lela sister dyo horsieback lo ~ now no aba Daddy xxxx animals in book oto car, tractor, bus Dadi = Daddy, grgrgr airplane David cousin (category-label) haw-haw dog, horse, etc. 19;0 aba ~ idzi buw 'moo' bo come ms. Imp. Mimi cousin haw dog (d)ubi teddy Bele Yonti, dyo camel, horsie kele(v) dog eli/ali = self xexexexe cat inne here [deictic] Shelly miyi = sitter Oyi! surprise lililili give me Miri li to-me bu book do doll 19;15 ima ~ uti mother i?o donkey uki cookie aba only her kuku cock ke(n) yes Dad upala all-fall-down 20 digdi tickle oto ship (in picture) (n)umi sleepies pele pelican bay-bay dele(t) door, open kxi take, Fem. Imp 20;15 Sya = Siya dog kuku peekaboo zuzi move, Fem. Imp Koko dog zse wanting (Shar)on cousin hine when asked where X is (R)oni cousin od more eli ~ ali self in say outside mirror may(im) Water (category) tap, sprinkler, bottle, coffee, bath

Processes in meaning development

Word First reference Later refrence Sch Sound of train Music, noise of wheels, sound of rain

8 9 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words Bow –wow Dog Sheep, rabbit fur, puppet Baby Baby People in picture Fireworks Fireworks Matches, light, cigarette Strawberry Strawberry Grapes, rasberry

 Regular extension  Underextension  Overextension  Unclassified – context bound Dromi: 212 out of 337 showed regular extension at some point. 98 of the 212 were regular all along. At the beginning, words move from one category to another. Later acquisitions were more regular.

Early lexical acquisition: rate & the vocabulary spurt

Dromi, E. 1986. The one-word period as a stage in language development. In I. Levin (ed.) Stages and Structure: Reopenning the Debate. Ablex. 220-245

Clark, E. V. 1994. The Lexicon in Acquisition. Cambridge University Press.

Goldfield, B. A. and J. S. Reznick. 1990. Early lexical acquisition: rate, content, and the vocabulary spurt. Journal of Child Language 17, 171-183

11 12 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words Dromi (1986):  Lexicon: 337 words  Age: 0;10,12 - 1;5,23  Beginning: words enter very slowly up to around 10 words  10th-21st week: up to 10 words a week  21st-24th week: 18 words a week.  25th: 44 new words – vocabulary spurt  A decline from week 28th and on.  Word combinations emerge on week 32  Two smaller bells with picks at weeks 11 and 21  The rate is curvilinear.

Clark (1994):  Lexicon: 337 words  Age: 1;0,10 - 1;9,24  Beginning: 1 to 7 words a week  12th-25th: 5 to 12 words a week  26th-41st: 10 to 20 words a week  Smaller picks all along, but no one spurt  Word combinations emerge on week 9 and increase gradually until week 29  A spurt of word combinations starting on week 29

Goldfield and Reznick (1990), Fig 4&5:  “ Gradual [growth] with occasional spurt intervals alternating with intervals of slower growth” (p. 177)  Lexicon: 75-100 words  Ages: 1;2 – 1;9 (Later-born)  Average of 2 to 5 words a week  Gradual growth in the use of nouns staying around the 50% level (compared to the “spurt group” with a rise from 30% to 80%)

What are the possible explanations for these differences?

12 13 Language Acquisition - 476 Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem First Words  Individual differences: focus on objects vs. activities, focus on combinations rather than single words.  Variation in the input – the naming game  Different in methods of data collection  Size of the studied lexicon