Lecture 10
30 Nov., 2005
Language Acquisition
Helena Gao
1
2
Required readings:
 Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing A Language. A Uage-Based Thoery of
Language Acquisition. Harvard University Press. Chapter two: Origins of
Language. pp. 8-42
 Lee, T. H. (2002). Two types of logical structure in child language. Journal of
Cognitive Science 3: 155-182.
 Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: Morrow. Chapter 1: An instinct
to acquire an art. pp. 15-24.
Recommended readings:
 Pinker, S. (1995). Language acquisition. In L. R. Gleitman, M. Liberman, and D. N.
Osherson (eds.), An invitation to cognitive science. 2nd Ed. Volume 1: Language.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chapter 5: Why the child holded the baby rabbits: A
case study in language acquisition. pp. 107-133.
 Gould, J. L., & Marler, P. (1987). Learning by Instinct. Reprinted as Chapter 7 in
Wang, W. S.-Y. (ed.), (1991), The Emergence of Language: Development and Evolution;
Readings from Scientific American Magazine, pp. 88-103. New York, NY: W.H.
Freeman.
 Moskowitz, B. A. (1978). The Acquisition of Language. Reprinted as Chapter 10
in Wang, W. S.-Y. (ed.), (1991), The Emergence of Language: Development and Evolution;
Readings from Scientific American Magazine, pp. 131-149. New York, NY: W.H.
Freeman.
3
Language acquisition theories
Two types of perspectives
 centered around “nurture” and “nature” distinction or on
“empiricism” and “nativism”.

Empiricism: all knowledge comes from experience,
ultimately from our interaction with the environment
through our reasoning or senses.

Nativism: at least some knowledge is not acquired through
interaction with the environment, but is genetically
transmitted and innate.

neither nurturists (environmentalists) disagree thoroughly with the
nativist ideas nor do nativists with the nurturist ideas.
4
Usage Based Accounts – Theory of Language
Acquisition




Supported by recent research
characterize children’s language in terms of
cognitive and communicative processes involved
children’s early language based on specific linguistic
items and expressions they comprehend and
produce
Three processes involved:
 Imitative learning
 Finding patterns in language
 Combining linguistic constructions creatively
5
Tomasello’s View (2003)

The human uses of symbols is primary, with the most likely
evolutionary scenario being that the human species evolved skills
enabling the use of linguistic symbols phylogenetically (p. 9)

The human adaptation for symbolic communication emerges in
human ontogeny quite predictably across cultures at around 1
year of age. It emerges in the context of a whole suite of new
social-cognitive skills, the most important for language
acquisition being the establishment of joint attentional frames,
the understanding communicative intentions, and a particular
type of cultural learning known as role reversal imitation. (p. 19)
6
Early skills of Intention-reading

(1) The joint attentional frame


(2) Understanding communicative intentions


Joint attentional frames are defined intentionally, that is, they gain their
identity and coherence from the child’s and the adult’s understandings of
“what we are doing” in terms of the goal-directed activities in which we
are engaged. (p. 22)
Children understand adult communicative intentions, including those
expressed in linguistic utterances, most readily inside the common ground
established by joint attentional frames. (p. 24)
(3) Cultural learning in the form of role reversal imitation

Children who understand that other persons have intentional relations to
the world, similar to their own, may attend especially carefully to the
behavioral means that these persons have devised for meeting their goals,
and so may imitate their intentional actions. (p. 26)
7
The development of grammar



Behavioural theory  Language acquired
through learning (e.g., operant conditioning,
imitation)
Parents and teachers model grammatically
correct language and provide feedback
Evidence?
8
Theories of grammar development
1. Behavioural theory
Evidence more contrary than supportive.

Brown and Hanlon (1970)  3 findings

Ungrammatical sentences rarely corrected


Sentence corrected only if they are untrue




Child:“Doggie bited daddy”
Mother: “Yes, that’s right”
Child (sees a car):“Dere’s a truck”
Mother: “No, that’s a car”
Ungrammatical requests as likely to be fulfilled as
ungrammatical requests
9
Theories of grammar development
1. Behavioural theory


Evidence more contrary than supportive.
Imitation?


Adults don’t use telegraphic speech
Adults don’t over-regularize verbs
10
Theories of grammar development







Nativist/linguistic perspective
Acquisition of grammar too complex, too
rapid to be the result of learning
Poverty of the stimulus
Chomsky: Language Acquisition Device
Genetically-specified grammatical processor
Recent evolutionary adaptation
Evidence?
11
Theories of grammar development





Cross-linguistic  Languages of the world conform
to a Universal Grammar (Chomsky)
Genetic  Grammatical impairments run in families
(Pinker)
Comparative  Our closest evolutionary ancestors
(Chimps) cannot learn grammar
Dissociations  Language and general intelligence
dissociate in Williams Syndrome
Developmental  Grammar acquired effortlessly and
systematically
12
Imitation - Research findings

In early infancy there is some face-to-face dyadic mimicking of
behaviors (Meltzoff & Moor, 1977)

Meltzoff (1995) found 18-month-olds appeared to understand
what the adult intended to do and performed the action instead
of just mimicking the adult’s actual behavior.

Aktar & Tomasello (1998a) investigated infants’ imitation of
accidental actions vs. intentional actions. They found that 16month-olds mainly produced the adult’s intentional actions (there)
but not the accidental ones (Woops!)
13
Meltzoff, A. N. & Moore, M.K (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by
human neonates. Science, 198. 75-78
2- to 3-day-old infants imitating (a) tongue protrusion, (b) mouth opening,
and lip protrusion demonstrated by adult experimenters. gestures by
human neonates.
14
Early Skills of Pattern-Finding

Human infants are experts from early in development in finding
visual patterns (Haith & Benson, 1997)

Synthesized speech exposed to 8-month-olds (Saffran, Aslin, &
Newport, 1996). Infants prefered to listen to the origial ones
heard.

Marcus et al. (1999) found that 7-month-olds preferred the
speech stream containing the same tri-syllabic nonsense “words”
that have the same pattern (e.g., bapopo) as they originally heard
(e.g., wididi, delili)

Gomez & Gerken (1999) found very similar results with 12month-olds.

These results indicate that prelinguistic infants are able to find patterns in
auditory stimuli of an abstract nature. (Tomasello, 2003: 30)
15
Universal pattern of language development
complex grammar
2 word
This suggests that
language is acquired as a
result of highly
specialized biologically
programmed mechanisms
operating on the
linguistic input.
1 word
babble
6-10 mo 12 mo
The same pattern is
observed in every culture
18 mo
36 mo
16
Language Development: Stages and Rule Systems

Brown’s (1973) Stages Mean Length of Utterance is a
good index of child’s language maturity. Stages indicate
growth of language complexity.
Stage 1 - 12 to 26 months of
Stage 2 - 27 to 30 months of
Stage 3 - 31 to 34 months of
Stage 4 - 35 to 40 months of
Stage 5 - 41 to 46 months of
age = MLU 1.00 to 2.00
age = MLU 2.00 to 2.50
age = MLU 2.50 to 3.00
age = MLU 3.00 to 3.75
age = MLU 3.75 to 4.50
17
Sensitive periods: Isolated children
Genie was an isolated child… as an infant she was locked away
and not spoken to. She was discovered by the authorities when
aged 13. Though she acquired words, she never acquired correct
grammar:
18
Isolated children (cont.)
By contrast, Isabelle and her mute, brain-damaged
mother escaped from the imprisonment of her
grandfather when she was aged 6½. Within eighteen
months, her language was not significantly behind the
level expected at her age:
19
Language Exposure and Language Use

Cameron-Faulkner, Lieven, and Tomasello (2003)
 examined
12 English-speaking mothers’ speech
during samples of their linguistic interactions with
their 2- to 3-year-old children
20
The overall findings:

Children heard an estimated 5000 to 7000 utterances per day

Between one-quarter and one-third of these were questions.

More than 20% of these were not full adult sentences, but rather
some kind of fragment (most often a noun phrase or prepositional
phrase)

About one-quarter of these were imperatives and utterances
structured by the copula

Only about 15% of these had the canonical English SVO form
(i.e., transitive utterances of various kinds) supposedly
characteristic of the English language; and over 80% of the SVOs
had a pronoun subject.
21
The specific words and phrases with which mothers
initiated utterances:
Are you ..., I'll ..., It's ..., Can you ...., Here’s ...., Let's ..., Look
at ..., What did ..., etc.
22

More than half of all maternal utterances began
with one of 52 highly frequent item-based frames


i.e., frames used more than an estimated 40 times per
day for more than half the children.
Mostly consisting of 2 words or morphemes.
23

More than 65% of all of the mothers’ utterances began
with one of just 156 item-based frames.

Approximately 45% of all maternal utterances began
with one of just 17 lexemes:


What (8.6%), That (5.3%), It (4.2%), You (3.1%),
Are/Aren't (3.0%), Do/Does/Did/Don't (2.9%), I (2.9%),
Is (2.3%), Shall (2.1%), A (1.7%), Can/Can't (1.7%),
Where (1.6%), There (1.5%), Who (1.4%), Come (1.0%),
Look (1.0%), and Let's (1.0%).
Children used many of these same item-based frames
in their speech, in some cases at a rate that correlated
highly with their own mother's frequency of use.
24
Cameron-Faulkner, Lieven, & Tomasello (2003)
What’s
What’re
What do
What did
What has
What about
What shall
What can
What does
What hppnd
What were
What kind of
.18
.09
.05
.04
.03
.03
.02
.02
.02
.01
.01
.01
Where’s
Where’re
Where shall
.05
.02
.01
Who’s
Who did
.08
.01
Which one
.02
Why don’t
.01
How many
.01
31 frames =>
80% of Wh Qs
13 frames =>
65% of Wh Qs
25
Early Gestures

Human infants produce three main types of gestures:




Reutilizations
Deictic gestures
Symbolic gestures
Gestures run the gamut from non-symbolic to
symbolic – and emerge along with the first linguistic
skills – is strong evidence that children’s ability to
communicate symbolically is not tied specially to
language but rather emanates from a more fundamental
set of social-cognitive skills (Tomasello & Camaiono,
1997)
26
Early Holophrases


An important issue for later language
development is what parts of adult expressions
children choose for their initial holophrases.
The answer presumably lies in the specific
language they are learning and the kinds of
discourse in which they participate with adults,
including the perceptual salience of particular
words and phrases in adults’ speech (Slobin,
1985)
27
Early Holophrases – language specific

In English, most beginning language learners acquire a number
of so-called relational words such as more, gone, up, down, on and off,
presumably because adults use these words in salient ways to talk
about salient event s (Blom, Tinker, and Margulis, 1993; McCune,
1992)


Many of these words are verb particles in adult English and so the child
at some point must learn to talk about the same events with phrasal verbs
such as pick up, get down, put on, and take off.
In Korean and Mandarin Chinese, in contrast, children learn fully
adult verbs from the onset f language development because
these verbs are most salient in adult speech to them (parallel to
an English verb like remove for clothing: Choi & Gonpnik, 1996:
Gopnik & Choi, 1995; Tardif, 1996)
28
Thomas Lee’s data (2002)


Mandarin-speaking children’s Sensitivity to
quantifier type and thematic roles in their
understanding of inverse scope for sentences.
Suggestion

Young children (about 4yeasrs of age) are sensitive
to constraints of the conceptual-intentional system
on quantifier scope interpretation
29
Phonological development

Systematic age-related changes in the ability to
perceive and produce the elementary sounds of
language.
30
Phonological development

Categorical phoneme perception at 1 month

Vowel discrimination at 2 months

Loss of the ability to discriminate non-native phonemes
by the end of the 1st year
31
Phonological development

6-8 weeks  cooing (vowel-like sounds with consonant
produced by closure of the back of the mouth (e.g., “g”
or “k”)

Later, comes to include consonants produced by
closure of the front of the mouth (e.g., “m” or “b”)
32
Phonological development

3 to 6 months  Emergence of babbling, the
production of consonant-vowel combinations like “da”
and “ba”

Reduplicated babbling  Repetition of C-V
combinations

9 to 10 months  More complex combinations
33
Phonological development
Interesting babbling facts

Cross-linguistic consistency in the timing of the onset
of cooing and babbling, although some cross-linguistic
differences in the sounds produced

Deaf infants babble in the first months of life
34
Learning words



Evidence of word-comprehension @ 6 months
(Tincoff & Juszyck, 1999) .
By 6, children understand over 5,000 different
words.
20 new words a week for 5 years!!!
35
Learning words




Words learning begins during mother-infant
interaction.
Best when child focussed on object, and mother
labels it.
Association formed.
How does child know what the word refers to?
36
Learning words



What are the words that infants first learn?
Nelson (1973)  First words name objects
(65%), or actions (14%).
Do infants’ first words have the same meaning
they do for adults?
37
Learning words







No: Often different from adult meanings.
Overextensions.
Meaning of a word overgeneralized.
"Dog" for any animal with 4 legs.
Underextensions.
Meaning of a word too constrained.
Car refers only to child’s father’s car.
38
Learning words




Most frequently used words? Goplink (1982)
Longitudinal, home-observation study.
Before 24 months, children most frequently use
words that provide commentary on their
ongoing activity.
"Gone", "there", "oh dear", "down".
39
Early word comprehension

7-8 months olds. Typical early
understood words: mummy, daddy,
clock, drink, teddy (Harris, et al.,
1995)

Acquire 5 to 10 words a day from
about 15th month through the 6th
year of life (Gleitman and Cleitman,
1992)

Vocabulary spurt: total number of
words grow fairly steadily until 12
months of age, when there will
typically be a sharp increase in
vocabulary
Average number of words understood by
boys and firls bet. 8 and 16 months
40
of age (Fenson et al. 1994. p. 74)
The development of grammar
Telegraphic Speech





Examples (Brown, 1973)
(1) Agent-action: "Tommy hit"
(2) Action-object: "Give cookie"
(3) Possessor-possession: "My car"
(4) Questions: “Where daddy?”
41
The development of grammar
1. Telegraphic Speech

Is telegraphic speech grammatical?
Braine, 1976  Pivot grammar
[Pivot word + open word]
“e.g., More ________”

Bloom, 1990


No wild grammars (e.g., “Big he”)
Gross violations rare (e.g., “Daddy eat” vs “Eat daddy”)
42
The development of grammar
2. Inflectional morphology


Rules governing the use of morphemes like
inflections (e.g., -s, -ed that alter the, -ing) syntactical
function of specific words
E.g.,



Past tense Acquired in a regular sequence
Not all past tenses formed through use of the [stem +“ed”] rule (E.g., Run/Ran)
How do children learn the exceptions?
43
The development of grammar
3. Irregular past-tense

Rules governing the use of morphemes like
inflections (e.g., -s, -ed that alter the, -ing)
syntactical function of specific words
Developmental U-shaped curve
44
The development of grammar
100
Proportion correct

3. Irregular
past-tense
Developmental
U-shaped curve
90
Developmental
U-shaped curve
80
70
60
50
40
30
1
2
3
4
Time
5
6
45
The development of grammar
3. Irregular past-tense





Developmental U-shaped curve
Irregular form learned first. “Ran”
Then over-regularization occurs. “Runned”
Finally, irregular forms reappear. “Ran”
Why does this occur?
46
The development of grammar
3. Irregular past-tense





Competing mechanisms
Irregulars first learned through association.
Then, children learn the past-tense rule.
Over-applied.
Must re-learn the exceptions.
47
Theories of Cognitive and
Language Development:
Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner
Comparisons and Contrasts
48
Outline

Brief review of Piaget’s theory

The role of culture - implications for Piaget’s theory

The theory of Vygotsky

The theory of Bruner
49
Summary of Piaget


Stage theory of development - older children think
qualitatively differently to younger children
4 stages:





Stage 1: Sensorimoter Period (0-2 years)
Stage 2: Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage (11+ years)
Development is the combined result of:


maturation of the brain and nervous system
experiences that help children adapt to new environments adaption: an organism’s ability to fit in with it’s environment.
50
Alternative to Piaget 1: Lev Vygotsky

1896 - 1934
Work remained little known because it was
banned by Stalin after Vygotsky’s death

Collapse of the Soviet Union meant:

greater dialogue between the West and Russia
 Vygotsky’s work translated into English

51
Vygotsky’s Theory: The role of
culture/social interaction

Sociocultural environment ALL IMPORTANT for
cognitive development

Different contexts create different forms of development
Cognitive processes (language, thought, reasoning)
develop THROUGH social interaction
Development is a product of CULTURE
Vygotsky emphasised the role of:





social interaction
instruction
52
Central idea


Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):
the difference between the level of actual
development and potential development
53
Example from Seifert, Hoffnung &
Hoffnung






Parent: Here are four books for you and the same for your
brother
Child: The same? (He investigates his brother’s pile of books.) No, he
has more (spoken with annoyance).
Parent: No, really, they’re the same. Take another look.
Child: He does have more.
Parent:Try laying his out in a row. Then lay yours out too. Then
compare
Child:(Does as suggested) One two three four . One two three four.
The same! (He looks satisfied)
54
Summary of the role of social
interaction



1. Confirm existing knowledge
2. Add new information
Instruction most effective when:
it builds on previous knowledge and skills (e.g.
counting)
 it provides a ‘sensible’ challenge - there’s no point
pushing children beyond their potential

55
Vygotsky’s theory: The role of language




Piaget’s view: language is just another
representational system. Underdeveloped until 6
to 7 years of age
Vygotsky’s view: language is social and
communicative. Essential for cognitive
development.
Why did Vygotsky think this?
Private speech - children talk to themselves
56
Vygotsky suggested:




adults give instructions to children (social speech)
children start to use parent’s instructions to
direct their own behaviour (private speech)
private speech becomes internalised as thought
processes (silent statements)
Children use this ‘internalised’ speech to plan
and organise behaviour => cognitive
development
57
Summary of Vygotsky




Culture and social interaction very important in
cognitive development
Social interaction with knowledgeable others
moves development forward - ZPD
Language is central to cognitive development:
social speech => private speech => thought
58
Alternative to Piaget 2: Jerome Bruner


Very influenced by Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s work
Responsible for introducing Vygotsky’s work to
the non-Soviet world
59
Bruner’s Theory: Similarities with Piaget

Socio-Cognitive Stage Theory:
Enactive Mode
 Iconic Mode
 Symbolic Mode
 Abstract thinking develops out of concrete thinking

60
Bruner’s Theory: Similarities with
Vygotsky


Interpersonal communication necessary for
development - socio -cognitive theory
Development relies on active intervention of
expert others:
SCAFFOLDING
 Contingency Rule (Wood, 1980)

61
Bruner’s Theory: The role of language



Language is important:
without language, thought is limited
language forms the basis of understanding:
prelinguistic thought - games and rituals
 rituals gradually replaced as adult adds information
 rituals replaced by linguistic modes of
communication

62
Summary of Bruner



Socio-cognitive stage theory
Based on interaction with adults
Relies on adults developing reciprocal behaviour
with the child
63
Overall Conclusion


Piaget underestimated the importance of
culture and social interaction
Vygotsky:


social interaction and language necessary for
cognitive development
Bruner:

Stage theory but emphasised role of social
interaction and language
64
Akhtar (1999) & Abbot-Smith et al. (2001)
Weird Word Order
English-speaking children hear utterances with “weird
word order” (familiar and unfamiliar verbs)

“The cow the horse is meeking/pushing” (SOV)

They are encouraged to use these same verbs with new
characters engaging in these same actions
65
AKHTAR (1999) & ABBOT-SMITH et al. (2001)
Percentage of mean number of utterances which were mismatches, as a function of condition and age group
100
90
80
70
60
Ungrammatical Familiar Verb
Ungrammatical Novel
Grammatical Novel
50
40
30
20
10
0
2;4 (AbbotSmith et al)
2;8 (Akhtar)
3;6 (AbbotSmith et al)
3;9 (AbbotSmith et al)
4;4 (Akhtar)
66
Golinkoff et al. 1987
*
*
“look! cookie monster’s tickling big bird”
“look! big bird’s tickling cookie monster”
see also Naigles (1990), Fisher (2000)
67
Childers & Tomasello (2001) Developmental
Psychology
Children at 2:6 hear several hundred transitive utterances over
4 days/sessions
• Either familiar or unfamiliar English verbs
• With either nouns only in slots or nouns & pronouns (consistent)
Test is traditional nonce verb learning
• child hears nonce verb as intransitive or passive
and must produce in transitive
68
Number of children in each condition (out of 10) who
produced at least one productive utterance with at least one
nonce verb during testing
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Nouns
Pronouns
Familiar Unfamiliar
Verb
Verb
Control
20% = same as in
previous studies
69
Diessel & Tomasello, Cognitive Linguistics (2001)
Development of Matrix Clauses
Age
Sarah
>2;11
Adam
I think [2;11] (2)
3;0-3;11
I think [3;1] (26)
(Do) you think [3;7] (2)
I think (7)
Do you think [3;3] (4)
Does he think [3;3] (3)
You don’t think [3;5] (1)
What do you think [3;5] (1)
I don’t think [3;8] (2)
4;0-5;0
I think (42)
I think (99)
Do you think (3)
Do you think (5)
I thought [4;1] (7)
I don’t think (2)
I’m thinking [4;2] (1)
Why do you think (2)
They think [4;3] (1)
What do you think (1)
What do you think [4;4] (1) One think [4;6] (1)
I don’t think [4;8] (2)
Paul think [4;10] (1)
I’ll think [4;10] (1)
70