LIGN171: Child Language Acquisition http://ling.ucsd.edu/courses/lign171 Grammar

„ Includes morphology and syntax

„ Morphology Grammar and word order „ Analysis of structure at the word level „ How are morphemes organized and structured into words? „ Syntax „ Analysis of structure at the clause and sentence level „ How are words organized and structured into clauses and sentences?

„ Bound morphemes Bound morphemes „ “Dog bites man” vs. “Man bites dog” „ Are attached to words they modify „ Affixes „ Suffix: at the end of a word „ -s in dogs; -ed in walked „ Questions vs statements „ Prefix: at the beginning of a word „ The girl who is on the swing is happy „ un- in undo; para- in paramilitary „ Infix: in the middle of a word „ Is the girl who is on the swing __ happy? „ -fucking- in abso-fucking-lutely „ Unbound morphemes „ Are free standing in a sentence „ A child needs to learn both word structure „ Whole words and clause structure „ dog; go; dogs; the; that „ I found a dog vs. I found the dog vs. I found the dogs „ And learn which is what „ Languages differ „ Does a language encode a meaningful contrast in „ Swedish morphology or syntax? „ indefinite article unbound – en hus “a house” „ Definite article bound – huset “the house”

Infant Speech Production When Syntax Starts… Stage Typical Age Description „ Novel combinations (where we can be sure that Cooing 2-3 months Interactional but non-linguistic the result is not being treated as a single word) vocalizations appear sporadically as early as 14 months. Marginal Babbling 4-6 months Transition between cooing and babbling „ At 18 months: Canonical Babbling 7-12 months Repeated syllable strings „ 11% of parents say that their child is often combining Words 12+ months Babbling and words initially co-exist words Two-word stage 18-24 months “mini-sentences” with simple „ 46% say that s/he is sometimes combining words. (1.5-2 years) semantic relationship Telegraphic 24-30 months “telegraphic” sentence structures of „ By 25 months: stage/early multiword (2-2.5 years) lexical (open-class) rather than stage functional morphemes „ almost all children are sometimes combining words Later multiword stage 30+ months Grammatical or functional structures „ but about 20% are still not doing it so “often.” (2.5+ years) (e.g., articles, agreement, et cetera) emerge

1 About 18 Months: The 2-word Stage About 24 Months: Telegraphic Stage

„ Usually combinations of individual naming actions that „ More than two words are often combined, but speech still might just as well have occurred alone. usually lacks most grammatical elements

„ Mommy hat (= “mommy’s hat”) Mommy hat (= “mommy’s hat”) „ In the early multi-word stage, children who are asked to repeat „ Hat mommy (=“mommy is putting on a hat”) sentences may simply leave out function words including „ Shirt wet pronouns. „ Doggy bark „ “I can see a cow” repeated as “See cow” (Eve at 25M) „ Ken water (for ‘Ken is drinking water’) „ “The doggy will bite” repeated as “Doggy bite” (Adam at 28M) „ Hit doggy „ “Where does Daddy go?” repeated as “Daddy go?” (Daniel at 23M)

„ Some combinations with certain pronouns or prepositions „ Spontaneous utterances also lack most grammatical elements begin to occur as well (e.g., my turn, in there, etc.) „ Kathryn no like celery (Kathryn at 22M) „ The more purely grammatical morphemes ( e.g., -s, is, a, „ Baby doll ride truck (Allison at 22M) the) are typically absent. „ Pig say oink (Claire at 25M) „ Want lady get chocolate (Daniel at 23M)

Syntax – It’s not All or Nothing Children know the correct forms

„ About the age of 2, children first begin to use grammatical before they reliably use them elements Tom Bever

„ finite auxiliaries (is, was) Tom: Where’s Mommy? „ verbal tense and agreement affixes (-ed, -s) Child: Mommy goed to the store. „ nominative pronouns (I, she) Tom: Mommy goed to the store? „ complementizers (that, where) „ determiners (the, a) Child: NO! (annoyed) Daddy, I say it that way, not you. Dan Slobin „ Telegraphic patterns alternate with adult or adult-like forms, Child: You readed some of it too…she readed all the rest. sometimes in adjacent utterances: Dan: She read the whole thing to you, huh? „ She’s gone. Her gone school. (Domenico at 24M) Child: Nu-uh, you read some. „ He’s kicking a ball. Her climbing up the ladder there. (Jem at 24M) Dan: Oh, that’s right, yeah. I readed the beginning of it. „ I teasing Mummy. I’m teasing Mummy. (Holly at 24M) „ I having this. I’m having 'nana. (Olivia at 27M) Child: Readed? (annoyed surprise) Read! „ I’m having this little one. Me’ll have that. (Betty at 30M) Dan: Oh yeah, read. „ Mummy haven’t finished yet, has she? (Olivia at 36M) Child: Will you stop that, Papa?

Two strategies

„ Case marking: morphological cue „ Der Hund hat den Mann gebissen Syntax „ (“the dog bit the man”)

„ Der Mann hat den Hund gebissen „ (“the man bit the dog”) Who did what to whom?

„ Word order: syntactic cue

„ Configurational vs non-configurational languages

2 Non-configurational Languages Configurational Languages

„ Warlpiri „ SVO (English) „ The man bit the dog „ Free word order „ SOV (Hindi) „ The man the dog bit „ VSO (Biblical Hebrew) „ Null anaphora „ Bit the man the dog „ VOS (Malagasy) „ Bit the dog the man „ OVS (Hixkaryana) „ The dog bit the man „ Discontinuous syntactic „ OSV (Urubu) expressions „ The dog the man bit

Do infants detect word order Preferential Looking Technique differences?

„ Head-turn preference procedure „ Listen to an auditory stimulus „ Habituate to: “cats-would-jump-benches” „ See images of two „ Test with: “cats-jump-wood-benches” events: one matches, „ 2 month old infants showed differential one doesn’t response – detected difference! „ Does the infant look longer at the image that „ But do they recognize a difference in matches? meaning? „ If yes, the infant understood the sentence

Preferential Looking Technique More complex syntax

„ At age 2 (24-27 months) „ Big Bird’s tickling cookie monster. Find Big Bird tickling „ Tested verbs toddlers are unlikely to know Cookie Monster. to know „ Transitive verb: „ Image 1: Big Bird is tickling „ Big Bird is flexing Cookie Monster Cookie Monster „ Intransitive verb: „ Big Bird is flexing with Cookie Monster „ Image 2: Cookie Monster is „ Image 1: tickling Big Bird „ Big Bird pushes Cookie Monster up and down, making him flex „ Image 2: „ Infants knew the names of „ Big Bird and Cookie Monster flexing the characters up and down next to each other „ Toddlers looked longer at „ Actions and characters matching image identical – word order is cue to roles of each character „ Recognition of grammar > to roles of each character 17 month old infants looked longer production of grammar at matching image!

3 Acquiring word order Evidence?

„ Parameter setting „ Basic word order learned very rapidly for „ “flipping a switch” production and comprehension „ Head initial language: VO (English) „ When full sentences are produced, „ Head final language: OV (Hindi) constituents are ordered accurately „ Relatively little data needed to determine which option is found in target language „ Supports parameter setting models „ Set of options provided by UG „ Pattern induction „ But – evidence comes from tests using „ Learn patterns based on specific examples „ “data-driven” learning familiar verbs!

Evidence for verb specific Alternative interpretation comprehension of word order?

„ Understanding of word order is not truly „ Toddlers can enact a transitive sentence with a general verb tickle but not hug „ Modeled on basis of individual verbs, gradually expands as more verbs are „ Verb specific formulas predict good performance on tests of production and comprehension with learned familiar verbs „ Parameter setting models also make this prediction „ Give (“She gave me a toy”) prediction „ SVIO (general) „ Good performance with familiar verbs does not „ [donor]-[give]-[recipient]-[gift] (specific) distinguish these two accounts

Unfamiliar verbs… Akhtar and Tomasello, 1997

„ What do children do when told: „ If children use and comprehend word What do children do when told: „ Make Big Bird dack Cookie Monster (agent verb patient) order correctly with novel verbs, then they may have a general understanding of „ Children taught novel verbs order, rather than a specific one „ Without linguistic cues: order, rather than a specific one „ “This is called dacking” „ With linguistic cues: „ “Big Bird’s tamming Cookie Monster” „ Inspired by wug test (Berko, 1958) „ “Make Big Bird dack Cookie Monster” „ Children younger than 3 „ With no linguistic cues: chance performance „ How do children do with novel verbs? „ With linguistic cues: accurate performance „ Suggests verb-specific word order knowledge

4 Parameters vs Patterns Methods

„ Present English speaking children with novel „ Participants verbs in non-English orders „ 12 children aged 2;1 – 3;1 „ There are no languages in which some verbs follow „ 12 children aged 3;2 – 3;11 one word order and other verbs follow another (also „ 12 children aged 4;0 – 4;9 consistent with parameter account) „ Equal numbers of boys and girls „ All participants taught 3 novel verbs „ Parameter setting – „ One verb in sentence-medial position (SVO) „ Very young children will use a single word order with „ Elmo dacking the car all transitive verbs „ One verb in sentence-final position (SOV) „ Pattern induction – „ Elmo the car gapping „ Very young children may acquire order on a verb-by- „ One verb in sentence-initial position (VSO) verb basis „ Tamming Elmo the car

Novel Verbs Predictions

„ Gapping – „ After training with puppets/toys, children given opportunity to perform the action „ A puppet springs a toy off a platform „ Asked “What’s going to happen now?” or “What connected to a metal coil happened?” „ Tamming – „ A puppet puts a toy on prop which when hit „ Parameter setting – caused the toy to be catapulted „ Even youngest children will not use SOV or VSO orders – either ignore verbs or correct to SVO „ Dacking – „ Pattern Induction – „ A puppet knocks a toy down a curved chute „ May show verb-dependent order, at least at youngest ages

Data Coding Results

„ Examine frequency of sentences containing „ SVO „ All children matched order novel verbs (spontaneous or elicited) and both correctly an agent and a patient „ SOV „ Two younger groups equally likely to use SOV as correct to „ Class sentences as either matching or SVO „ Older children corrected to mismatching order modeled for child SVO „ If tamming is modeled in SVO, does child use it in „ VSO SVO sentence? „ Two younger groups equally likely to use VSO as correct to SVO „ Older children corrected to Control for compliance: if a child „ Older children used more novel verbs than SVO used a non-SVO order – just cooperating? Expose them to a younger children, so use proportions to control familiar verb in wrong order – do for this difference they use it wrong or not?

5 Summary Individuals vs averages

„ Younger children were willing to use „ On average – children equally likely to correct to ungrammatical structures with novel verbs SVO as use non-SVO order „ “Tigger the fork dacking” „ These are not imitative! „ True for every child? Or averaging artifact (i.e., some children have parameter set, some don’t) „ Control condition: „ All children corrected to SVO with familiar verbs „ Only 3 children occasionally matched experimenter’s „ Some of both – ungrammatical use of unfamiliar verb „ Some children matched only, and didn’t correct „ Possibly some cooperation, but not enough to explain „ Some children corrected only, didn’t match results „ Some children did both

Parameters or patterns? Parameters or patterns?

„ Even the youngest children produced SVO „ Parameters – orders for verbs they had only heard in non-SVO „ Maybe learning word order is not just like flipping a sentences switch, as process is gradual „ Maybe discrete changes not perfectly reflected in child’s use „ Not consistent with strong version of pattern induction of language? hypothesis „ 2 year olds; 3 year olds sometimes used non- „ Patterns – SVO orders „ Knowledge not framed around individual verbs, since some novel verbs are corrected to order they were „ 4 year olds almost never did (corrected weird never learned in orders to make them like English „ Maybe children know more about verbs generally than they were expected to? „ Acquisition of word order is a gradual process „ Maybe animacy cue? (inanimate items occur post-verbally)

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