Word learning Flashcards
MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MBCDI)
List of words that children are likely to know. Parents report the words the words that their children know on this list.
Vocabulary spurt
Period of time when a child acquires words very quickly
Kids usually learn their first word in production at ___ years old
1
First vocabulary spurt
1;6 (after around 50 words learned)
Children’s early lexicon mostly contains …
Nouns (mostly common nouns)
Age at which children start to acquire verbs and adjectives faster
1;6
Once the child has __ words, function words increase in number and frequency
400
Do nouns predominate in early speech because they occupy salient positions in sentences?
No
Nouns are ____, meaning they are linked to a concept like an object or a person
Referential
Verbs are harder to acquire because they have…
Argument structure
Overextension
A word is used by the child to cover more meanings than it has in the target language
- Based on properties like :
shape, size, sound, texture and more rarely functional characteristics
Underextension
A word refers to less meanings than in the target language.
Prediction if overextension is due to the child representing the word as a subset of semantic features of the adult word
Overextension will apply to both production and comprehension
Prediction if overextension is only due to inability to recall the right word
Production errors only
For all children there is less overextension in ______comprehension/production
Comprehension
Learning by ostension
Parent shows the child a thing and labels it with a word
Factors that explain why child’s semantic representations are not target-like
- length of time since the word’s acquisition (recently acquired = less semantic features info ) ;
o frequency and breadth of use of the word in the child’s experience.
Overextension likely often arises from …
Word retrieval difficulties due to cognitive demands issues.
Fast mapping
Children need very few exposures to a new word to acquire some aspects of its meaning
The Gavagai problem
When the child is presented with a word, there is infinite logical hypotheses the child can make about the word’s meaning
How word learning impacts phonology
When we cannot predict when a rule applies, it is possible that the variation is due to old words that resist adapting to the new grammar. (E.g. some words are produced in a target-like way, but in other earlier acquired words, [ae] became [ɛ] because [ae] was too difficult to pronounce when the word was acquired)
True or false : children make mistakes like the ones predicted by the Galvagai problem
False
mechanisms of ______narrow down the word meaning hypotheses when children learn new words
Induction
Innate word learning biases
- Principle of Reference
- Whole Object Constraint
- Principle of Mutual Exclusivity
Prototypical properties
Properties that are shared by all members of a category of concept
A concept that does not respect some prototypical propertiesis still considered as a member of its category because …
Essence
Categorization problem
Difficulty determining correct set of features that make a referent part of a category
Children attend more to objects in the presence of _____
Language
The attention grabbing effect of ostension is ____short/long term while linguistic labelling is ____short/long term
Ostension : short term
Linguistic labelling : long time effect
Why does labeling increase attention ?
To map the label onto a meaning linked to the object
Whole object constraint
Children assume that a new word refers to a whole object, not a property of it
When shown a substance vs an object, and told a label for it; children prefer to look at the ______object/substance
Object
Children use this to distinguish objects with different labels
Shape (not size, texture, etc.)
Principle of mutual exclusivity
Each object has a unique label (children avoid synonyms)
If a child hears a new word that seems to refer to a concept for which they already have a label, they will assume the word refers to…
Something other than the whole object (part, property of it)
The principle of mutual exclusivity helps overcome the _____ _______ constraint, and learn adjectives and class inclusion terms (e.g. dog is part of pet)
Whole object
5 reasons verbs are difficult to acquire
- Mapping problem (matching verb with right action)
- Reversible pairs of verbs like give-take can describe the same action
- Some verbs do not have visible, real references
- Verbs are not always uttered at the time the action is occuring (e.g. eat your peas)
- Some actions occur without labelling
Bootstrapping
Using the information and knowledge at hand to solve a problem without explicit help from an external source (like an adult)
* These resources (information and knowledge) could be innate or they could be learned from other already learned components of the grammar
Phonological bootstrapping
Using phonology to tell word boundaries (morphology)
Syntactic boostrapping
Using syntactic information (syntactic frame) to narrow down the meanings of verbs
Why are events considered conceptually complex ?
o they can have a beginning, a middle and an endpoint
o they can be continuous or momentary
o verbs can encode different properties of an event, like the path or manner of a motion event
Intransitive verbs select __ participant(s)/argument(s)
1, mapped to subject
Transitive verbs select __ participant(s)/argument(s)
2, 1 mapped to subject (e.g. chasing), 1 mapped to object (e.g. being chased)
Ditransitive verbs select __ participant(s)/argument(s)
3, 1 mapped to subject (e.g. giver); 1 mapped to direct object (e.g. object that is given); 1 mapped to indirect object (e.g. receiver)
Verbs have argument structure, meaning …
Verbs permit or require specific arguments types to complete their meaning and create well-formed sentences (S)
Argument
A noun phrase or a prepositional phrase required by a verb to make a sentence
Can be :
* subject
* direct object
* indirect object
Verbs that select the same number of arguments often share ______ features
Semantic
The relationship between subject and object in transitive verbs is usually ______
Causative/affected
Intransive verbs usually refer to actions that …
The subject does by themselves
Ditransitive verbs usually refer to actions linked to _____
Transfer
Syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis
The syntax of a sentence restricts the possible meanings of a verb
Syntactic bootstrapping preferential looking paradigm experiment
Children looked at 2 screens, one with a duck and bunny both “gorping”, the other with a duck “gorping” the bunny.
Conditions :
Transitive : Children heard “The duck is gorping the bunny.”
Intransitive : Children heard “The duck and bunny are gorping.”
Results :
Transitive condition : children prefered to look at the duck gorping the bunny screen
Intransitive condition : children prefered to look at the duck and bunny gorping screen
Conclusion : Children use argument structure to interpret meaning of unknown verbs
True or false : the link between the number of arguments and the meaning of verbs is present across languages
True
How children know which nouns refer to substances
They draw inferences based on the fact that substances can only be used with the determiner “some” contrary to nouns which can be used with indefinite (‘a’) and definite articles (‘the’)
How children distinguish proper and common nouns
They draw inferences based on the fact that proper names for entities cannot be used with determiners nor articles
Children can use a known verb to infer the semantic properties of a noun _____
Subject (e.g. only animate things can cry)
