Word Learning Flashcards
Protowords
Sounds used consistently by children with consistent meaning but which bear no resemblance to conventional words
Parent understands it, ritualized
Can be gestures at first, then sounds plus gestures, then just sounds
Not referential, but interactional (word must “stand for” the referent, not just “go with” them)
Protolanguage
Halliday’s Four distinct acts of meaning
Instrumental – request an object
Regulatory – request an action
Interactional – social context
Personal – share interest
The mapping (“gavagai”) problem
What exactly is the word referring to?
How large or small is the category?
Underextension Error
A child infers that a word belong to too small a group of things
Context-specific words
Overextension Error
A child infers that a word belong to too large a group of things
The property of this category is X, so everything that is X belongs in this category
Patterners
Interested in building, knowing how things work, objects, discovering
More interested in things
Have more referential words at 50 words
Dramatists
Interested in reproducing adult social reality
More interested in people
Have more expressive words at 50 words
Why is there a word spurt at 50 words?
Nativist, Behaviorist, Constructivist Explanations
Nativist
Onset of the innate word-learning constraints
Behaviorist
All words are learned in parallel but some are easy to learn and others are hard. Just statistical.
Constructivist
Advances in the child’s understanding of the world and of the nature of words (and how they can be grouped into categories)
(Nativist) Word learning constraints
3 Terms
According to the lexical constraint theory, children are able to figure out the correct meaning of words because they are born with innate knowledge that allows them to constrain the space of the possible meanings of words.
Whole Object Assumption
Mutual Exclusivity Assumption
Taxonomic Assumption
Whole Object Assumption
Proposes that when children hear a word, they assume it refers to the whole word.
Mutual Exclusivity Assumption
Proposes that children assume that different words refer to different things.
Objects and concepts have a single word to refer to them
Taxonomic Assumption
Proposes that children assume that words refer to thing that are of the same kind, and so are used to categorize things
If a researcher used a name (“This is a sud. Fund the other sud”) vs. a vague “Find something like this,” the kid points to another categorically related picture (another dog, for instance)
Behaviorist word learning constraints
The innate constraints could also be learned
Blocking
Constructivist word learning constraints
Principle of conventionality
Principle of Contrast
Principle of conventionality
Words cannot be made up; they must be shared by the community
(language is a set of mostly arbitrary conventions)
Principle of Contrast
Different words have different meanings
Study: Do children understand the conventionality of words?
Graham, Stock, and Henderson
19 month olds
Tells kids that they are looking through a box for a “mido”
Picks something up, says “oh!”
Kids subsequently identify that object as a mido, regardless of whether the same person asks them or not
Suggests that kids know that words generalize across people
Composition of kid’s early vocabulary
(3 types and definitions)
Context-bound/context-specific
If the context is changed, the kid will not use the word anymore
Nominal
Referential, noun-like words
Used flexibly, across situations
Non-nominal
Not a noun
Used flexibly, across situations
How does a word become context-bound?
If it is only used in one way by the caregiver
A study showed that mothers did use the words out of the context that the kids use them, but most kids use the meaning most frequently used by the mother
Classical Conditioning
Unconditioned Stimulus
Unconditioned Response
Conditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Response
Dog – bell to salivation (presence of food)
Bunny - tone to blink (eye air puff)
Word learning as classical conditioning
Hear the word cat to a mental representation of a cat (whether or not the cat is present)
Blocking in classical conditioning
The learned response inhibits other responses
If a rabbit is trained first with a tone, can’t learn a new stimulus, such as a light flash
Social-pragmatic accounts of word learning
Word learning is born out of the child’s understanding of the world and other minds
Joint Attention
Common Ground
Joint Attention
Said to exist when two individuals are both attending to an object and when they are aware that the other is attending to it
Conversation as joint action
Language is used to get things done
Involves many individual actions
Ultimately a joint, collaborative action - cooperative
Study: Do children pay attention to joint attention and common ground?
Tomasello
Experiment 1:
12 month old played with two toys with an adult that left the room
Child played with third toy with second adult
When first adult returned, adult said, “wow, give me that!”
Child handed object three
Child know from common ground that adult would not be excited about toy one and two
Experiment 2:
Same study, but just watched adult play with the two toys
When they came back in, child would hand them anything
Joint attention is necessary for common ground
Behaviorist view of word learning
Kids have a novelty bias
They assume the other person is referring to something novel or something that stands out (to the kid)
Don’t need any knowledge of other minds
