Post on 17-Dec-2015
The acquisition of simple sentences
One-word utterances / holophrases
Daddy. [Adam 1;4]
Mommy. [Adam 1;4]
Doggy. [Adam 1;5]
Goodbye. [Adam 1;5]
Allgone. [Adam 1;6]
One-word utterances / holophrases
Children‘s early one-word utterances are speech
acts.
There is no distinction between words and
sentences at this stage.
Sequences of one-word utterances
The child and her father are sitting at a table. The father is cutting peaches into pieces. After eating two pieces of peach, the child wants another one.
CHILD: Peach. Daddy. (Child picks up the spoon)
CHILD: Spoon. (Child gives both peach and spoon to her father)
CHILD: Daddy. Peach. Cut.
Sequences of one-word utterances
The child pretends to cook something on a toy stove.
CHILD: Cook. Baby.
MOTHER: Is the baby cooking?
CHILD: Pot. Meat.
Fundamental frequencies nonfinal words
197
243 245
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
one-word utterances sequences of one wordutterances
multiple-wordutterances
Duration of nonfinal words (polysyllabic words)
780
700
500
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
one-word utterances sequences of oneword utterances
multiple-wordutterances
Duration of nonfinal words (polysyllabic words)
780
700
500
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
one-word utterances sequences of oneword utterances
multiple-wordutterances
Sequences of single words
There is evidence that sequences of single words are often planned as single units.
1. intonation
2. duration
3. pauses
Sentence formulas
Kendall swim.Kimmy come. Doggie bark.Pillow fall.
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 and action
Agent and patient
Sentence formulas
Hit ball.Put book.Drink milk.Eat apple.
Play bed.Sit pool.Walk street.Come here.
Action and patient
Action and location
Sentence formulas
Book table.Sweater chair.Ball floor.
Kimmy bike. [That is Kimmy’s bike] Daddy shoe. [That is daddy’s shoe]Adam foot. [That is Adam’s foot]
Entity and location
Possessor and possessed
Sentence formulas
Big train.Red train.Hot milk.
No milk.No water.No play.
Modifier and object
Negation and object/action
Sentence formulas
That doggy.It cat.There ball.This my spoon.
What dat?Who dat?Where doggy?
Focus and object
Question word and (pro)noun
Sentence formulas
1. Children’s early utterances are grounded in the conceptualization of basic situations.
2. The acquisition of meaning precedes the acquisition of structure.
Pivot grammar
Martin Braine (1963; 1976): Children’s grammar consists of two types of words:
(1) pivot words(2) open class words
Pivot grammar
Pivot words:
Spatial particles up, off, backPronouns/deictics that, itPossessives my, yourCertain verbs put, take, seeCertain adjectives big, prettyOther relational terms other, more, allgone, bye-bye
Pivot grammar
O P + O O + P O + O
DaddyHiByebye
See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon
Shoe offShirt offDaddy doMommy doBlanket awayDaddy away.
Mommy sleepMilk cupBaby sit.
Pivot grammar
Pivot grammar rules (Braine 1963):
S → O Daddy
S → P + O That cat.
S → O + P Book back.
S → O + O Adam book.
Constructivist approach
Dat Daddy. 2;0Dat’s Weezer. 2;0Dat my chair. 2;1Dat’s him. 2;1Dat’s a paper too. 2;4That’s too little for me. 2;9
More car. 1;11More that. 2;0More cookie. 2;0More fish. 2;1More jump. 2;1More Peter water. 2;4
Constructivist approach
No bed. 1;11No bread. 2;0No eat. 2;2No milk. 2;2No apple juice. 2;5
Block get-it. 2;3Bottle get-it. 2;3Mama get-it. 2;4Towel get-it. 2;4Dog get-it. 2;4Books get-it. 2;5
Constructivist approach
Boot off. 2;0Light off. 2;1Hands off. 2;1
Pants off. 2;1Hat off. 2;3
Spoon back. 2;2Tiger back. 2;3Give back. 2;3Ball back. 2;3Want ball back. 2;4
Constructivist approach
Clock on there. 2;2Up on there. 2;2Hot in there. 2;2Milk in there. 2;4Water in there 2;5
All broke. 2;0All buttened. 2;3All clean. 2;4All done. 2;4
Constructivist approach
All gone milk. 2;2All gone shoe. 2;2All gone juice. 2;2All gone bear. 2;3
Constructivist approach
How do we characterize these utterances?
• They have meaning.
• They have structure.
• They do not have the structure of adult grammar.
• They are organized around concrete words.
Constructivist approach
Brooks and Tomasello (1999)
2,0-3;0-year olds
meeking = pushing a car-like vehicle up a slope.
Constructivist approach
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? (pointing to Big Bird)
That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car.
Big Bird is going to meek what? (pointing to the car)
Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car.
Did you see who meeked the car?
Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car.
Constructivist approach
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? (pointing to the car)
That’s right, the car is going to get meeked.
The car is going to get meeked by who? (pointing to Big Bird)
Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird.
Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird?
Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird.
Constructivist approach
1. What did the AGENT (e.g. child) do?
2. What happened to the PATIENT (e.g. car)?
Constructivist approach
Active training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
12 88
What is the AGENT doing?
0 100
Constructivist approach
Active training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
12 88
What is the AGENT doing?
0 100
Passive training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
85 5
45 15
Constructivist approach
beater BEAT x hitter hit x pusher PUSH x x is BEATEN by beater
AG VERB PA PA is VERB-ed by AG
Constructivist approach
Lexically-specific constructions help the child to
bridge the gap between rote-learning and system
building.
Similarity
Similarity
Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object
similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre
Gentner 1983)