lecture 7 grammar development Flashcards
define grammar
whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology
define syntax
arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language
define morphology
the study of the forms of things - combining morphemes to create complex words
define morpheme
smallest unit of language that carries meaning
ie free morpheme “cat”
bound morphemes attached to free morphemes - ie ‘cat-s’
define MLU
mean length utterance
the number of morphemes used in a specific time frame
MLU in first stage of synactic development (brown)
- 75
forms: telegraphic and word order
MLU in second stage of syntactic development (brown)
- 25
forms: added morphemes ie eat-ing
MLU in third stage of syntactic development (brown)
- 75
forms: asking questions, negation/contradiction, and copula (connecting word - ‘is’)
MLU in fourth stage of synactic development (brown)
- 50
forms: complex sentences, past tense and third person
MLU in fifth stage of syntactic development (brown)
4.0
further complexity - coordinate nounds and verb phases, include conjunctions ie ‘but’ ‘if’
do children make grammatical errors
utterances tend to be error free - main errors are omission not commission of words which are simplified versions of adult forms and therefore arguably grammatically correct
describe the learning account of grammar acquisition
learn language via experience - produce grammatical sentences by imitation and reinforcement
parental approval/disapproval of utterances reinforces child’s use of correct grammatical utterances
what is the bakers paradox
Projection Problem: “What is the functional relation that exists between an arbitrary human being’s early linguistic experience (his ‘primary linguistic data’) and his resulting adult intuitions?”
concerns the acquisition of negative exceptions: How does the learner know that the double object construction is not available to certain verbs
ie John donated a painting to the museum/them.
*John donated the museum/them a painting.
child cannot rely on direct negative feedback. At the same time, the child cannot assume unattested linguistic forms to be ungrammatical in general
what is the learnability problem
if learn form experience then learning language from a limited set of examples ie via overhearing and being spoken to
- chomsky argues too complicated to learn language fully from simple examples
describe no negative evidence for bakers paradox
learners don’t use negative evidence to acquire their native language - Negative evidence can be
defined as evidence against the grammaticality of some sentence type, that is, evidence that it is ungrammatical
- children dont learn incorrect grammar by beign told they are wrong
describe the generalisation problem of language acquisition (learnability problem)
children have hypothesised language which does not meet the language target as a whole
assume sentences they head in their environment are the allowed grammatical constructs
generalised their hypothesised language to the target language - language grows from examples in environment which provides understanding of grammar (examples not necessarily good)
describe the retreat problem
assume all possible grammatical structures are allowed and therefore hypothesised grammar overshoots target - must reduce hypothesised to meet accepted constructs
BUT THIS DOESNT HAPPEN - DONT RETREAT WHEN WRONG
what is the language acquisition device
that can seem to form grammatically correct sentence without experience may imply that have innate mechanism for for universal understanding of grammatical principles
- LAD specifies fundamental grammatical principles shared by all languages, therfore ability to acquire lang is innate, domain specific and uniquely human
features of LAD
universal
nativist
modular
minimal role of experience
how does the LAD work
principles - universal innate rules about language specific to all languages (can be applied to all instances)
child first applied parameters- based on the language the child hears and then uses the principles to the language
ie is reference to subject necessary in a sentence? yes in french or English, no in Spanish
does negative evidence exist
no evidence that approval or disapproval contingent on syntax - parents correct only semantic errors
parental recasts are more likely after error ie parent rephrase childs sentence
describe direct contrast hypothesis (is negative feedback used?)
saxton
child contrast error with parents repetition/recast of their sentence
provide correct forms of childrens utterances
Ie yes he did eat it
descibe prompt hypothesis (is negative feedback used?)
saxton
neg feedback prompt to switch from erroneous to correct form
- parent requests clarification of their grammar “he did what?” that causes child to shift to correct use
stats of specific language impairment
7% of 5 year olds
language skill sig below age norm but normal IQ, hearing,, motor etc
