Early child utterances
Sentence formulas
Sentence formulas
Children’s early utterance are sentence formulas that
describe a limited number of (semantically defined)
situation types.
(Brown 1973; Schlesinger 1974)
Sentence formulas
Kendall swim.
Kimmy come.
Doggie bark.
Pillow fall.
agent - action
Sentence formulas
Daddy cookie. [= Daddy is eating a cookie]
Kendall spider. [= Kendall is looking at a spider]
Adam book. [= Adam is reading a book]
Daddy door. [= Daddy is closing the door]
agent - patient
Sentence formulas
Hit ball.
Put book.
Drink milk.
Eat apple.
action - patient
Sentence formulas
Play bed.
Sit pool.
Walk street.
Come here.
action - location
Sentence formulas
Book table.
Sweater chair.
Ball floor.
entity - location
Sentence formulas
Kimmy bike.
Daddy shoe.
Adam foot.
possessor - possessed
Sentence formulas
Big train.
Red train.
Hot milk.
modifier – object
Sentence formulas
No milk.
No water.
No play.
negation – object/action
Sentence formulas
That doggy.
It cat.
There ball.
This my spoon.
pronoun – object
Sentence formulas
What dat?
Who dat?
WH – pronoun
Sentence formulas
Children’s early utterances are organized on
semantic grounds. Grammatical relations and
syntactic structure emerge only later.
(Schlesinger 1974)
The pivot look
Item-based constructions
More car.
More that.
More cookie.
More fish.
More jump.
More Peter water.
1;11
2;0
2;0
2;1
2;1
2;4
Item-based constructions
Block get-it.
Bottle get-it.
Spoon get-it.
Towel get-it.
Dog get-it.
Books get-it.
2;3
2;3
2;4
2;4
2;4
2;5
Item-based constructions
Spoon back.
Tiger back.
Give back.
Ball back.
Want ball back.
2;2
2;3
2;3
2;3
2;4
Item-based constructions
More __ .
__ get-it.
__ back.
Children’s early multi-word utterances are lexically
specific. [Tomasello 2000]
Item-based constructions
No bed.
No bread.
No eat.
No milk.
No apple juice.
1;11
2;0
2;2
2;2
2;5
Item-based constructions
Clock on there.
Up on there.
Hot in there.
Milk in there.
Water in there
2;2
2;2
2;2
2;4
2;5
Item-based constructions
All broke.
All buttened.
All clean.
All done.
All gone milk.
All gone shoe.
All gone juice.
All gone bear.
2;0
2;3
2;4
2;4
2;2
2;2
2;2
2;3
Item-based constructions
Dat Daddy.
Dat’s Weezer.
Dat my chair.
Dat’s him.
Dat’s a paper too.
That’s too little for me.
2;0
2;0
2;1
2;1
2;4
2;9
Item-based constructions
Boot off.
Light off.
Hands off.
Pants off.
Hat off.
2;0
2;1
2;1
2;1
2;3
Generative grammar
The generative view
Adam book = Adam is reading a book.
S
VP
NP
VP
N
AUX
Adam
(is)
NP
V
read(ing)
DET
(a)
N
book.
Pivot grammar
Pivot grammar
Martin Braine (1963): Children’s early utterances
are composed of words from two word classes:
1. pivot words
2. open class words
Pivot grammar
Pivot words:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Spatial particles
Pronouns/deictics
Possessives
Certain verbs
Certain adjectives
Relational expressions
up, off, back
that, it
my, your
put, take, see
big, pretty
other, more, allgone
Pivot grammar
Four sentence types:
1.
2.
3.
4.
O
P+O
O+P
O+O
Daddy
That cat.
Book back.
Adam book.
Pivot grammar
P+O
See boy
See sock
Pretty boat
Pretty fan
My Mommy
My milk
Allgone shoe
Allgone egg
More taxi
More melon
Pivot grammar
P+O
O+P
See boy
See sock
Pretty boat
Pretty fan
My Mommy
My milk
Allgone shoe
Allgone egg
More taxi
More melon
Shoe off
Shirt off
Daddy do
Mommy do
Blanket away
Daddy away.
Pivot grammar
P+O
O+P
O+O
See boy
See sock
Pretty boat
Pretty fan
My Mommy
My milk
Allgone shoe
Allgone egg
More taxi
More melon
Shoe off
Shirt off
Daddy do
Mommy do
Blanket away
Daddy away.
Mommy sleep
Milk cup
Baby sit.
Pivot grammar
Pivot grammar rules:
1.
2.
3.
4.
SPO
SOP
SOO
SO
The construction-based approach
Construction Grammar
Grammar consists of form-function pairings, i.e.
constructions.
A construction is a complex linguistic sign that
combines a specific form with a particular meaning.
Linguistic sign
r{bIt
Passive Construction
(1)
The meal was cooked by John.
(2)
Mary was hit by the car.
(3)
The ball was kicked by Peter.
(4)
The book was written by John.
NP be V-ed
PA
verb
by NP
AG
Caused-motion Construction
(1)
She dragged the child into the car.
(2)
He wiped the mud off his shoes.
(3)
She forced the ball into the jar.
(4)
He pushed the book down the chute.
NP
V
NP
PP
<X causes Y to move somewhere>
(5)
She sneezed the napkin of the table.
Resultative Construction
(1)
Peter meeked the bleek dizzy.
NP
V
NP
ADJ
<X changes Y such Y becomes Z>
Transitive Grammar
(1)
Peter hit Mary.
(2)
Peter kicked the horse.
(3)
Peter pressed the button.
(4)
Peter pushed the elephant.
NP
V
NP
<X affected Y>
Item-based constructions
Item-specific constructions help to bridge the
gap between rote learning and grammatical
development.
Item-based constructions
First words
Mommy
Doggy
Allgone
goodbye
Item-specific
constructions
More __ .
__ allgone.
__ back.
Schematic
constructions
NP V NP PP
X moves Y somewhere
Item-based constructions
Item-specific constructions help to bridge the gap
between word learning (=route learning) and
grammatical development (=system building).
They involve both object similarity and structural
similarity.
Similarity
Similarity
Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object
similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre
Gentner 1983)
Word learning involves object similarity (=recognition
of the same phonetic substance).
Grammatical development involves relational
similarity (=recognition of relationship between words
and categories).
Children are conservative learners
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Look, Jack is meeking the wagon.
2;0-3;0 year olds
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Look, the wagon is getting meeked.
2;0-3;0 year olds
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Look Jack is
meeking the
ball.
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Look the ball
is meekd (by
Jack).
Item-based constructions
Passive condition
Look, the car is going to get meeked.
The car is going to get meeked by Big Bird.
What’s going to get meeked? (experimenter points to the car)
That’s right, the car is going to get meeked.
The car is going to get meeked by who? (eperimenter points to Big Bird)
Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird. (while performing action)
Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird? (experimenter points to the car)
Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird.
Item-based constructions
Active condition
Look, Big Bird is going to meek something.
Big Bird is going to meek the car.
Who’s going to meek the car? (experimenter points to Big Bird)
That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car.
Big Bird is going to meek what? (experimenter points to the car)
Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car. (while performing action)
Did you see who meeked the car? (experimenter points to Big Bird)
Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car.
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
What is Jack
doing?
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
What, happens to the wagon?
2;0-3;0 year olds
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Passive
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
85
Active
response
5
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Passive
response
Active
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
85
5
What is the
AGENT doing?
45
15
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Active training
Passive
response
Passive
response
Active
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
85
5
What is the
AGENT doing?
45
15
0
Active
response
100
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Active training
Passive
response
Passive
response
Active
response
Active
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
85
5
12
88
What is the
AGENT doing?
45
15
0
100
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Active training
Passive
response
Passive
response
Active
response
Active
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
85
5
12
88
What is the
AGENT doing?
45
15
0
100
Network of constructions
NP V NP
NP V (by NP)
Agent VERBtrans Patient
Patient is VERb-ed (by agent)
Xer BEAT y
Xer DRAG y
Xer MEEK y
x is beaten
by y