7.psycholinguistics12

8/12/2019 7.psycholinguistics12

1/129

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Language Acquisition


2/129

Announcements On-line Blackboard quiz for chapter 4 is now up.

You may take it 5 times, top score counts

I may end up pushing Exam 2 back a day. Ill let youknow soon.

Ill hand back Exam 1 at the end of class today

Language development section includes information

from Chapter 3, pages 72-87 Homework #2 due Feb. 21st


3/129

Acquiring language

Student in my

psycholinguistics

course

Dr. Cutting, language sure

is complicated. How do you

expect us to learn all this stuff?


4/129

Acquiring language

Student in my

psycholinguistics

course

2 year old

Whaddaya mean, mommy.

I can talk.

I can understand what you say.Whats so hard?


5/129

Acquiring language

Student in my

psycholinguistics

course

2 year old

How do we (humans) do it? How do we learn to use

this complex behavior?


6/129

Overview Some of the major issues

Imitation vs Innateness

Born to walk Born to talk?

How much explicit teaching do we get?

Very little on syntax & phonology, some on meaning

Commonalities across individuals, languages and

cultures Language is complex everywhere

Sounds, words, syntax, and more

No primitive (simple) languages

Language development is similar everywhere

Similar stages


7/129

Different approaches Behaviorist accounts

Imitation (& conditioning) accounts

e.g., B. F. Skinnerchildren learn through imitation and

reinforcement.

Nativist (Innateness) accountso e.g., Chomskys Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

o Language works by internalizing the rules of grammar to producesentences.

o They do this without practice, reinforcement, or adult modelingo Universal Grammar & Parameter setting


8/129

Different approaches Cognitive hypotheses

Piagetcognitive development drives language

development

Vygotskylanguage and cognition are initially separate, but

as each develop become tightly interconnected, with each

influencing each other

Social hypothesis

e.g., Bruners Language acquisition socialization system(LASS)emphasized the social setting in acquiring

language

Exposure to language is not enough, learners must

experience language in social/interactive contexts

E.g, child-directed speech, turn taking situations


9/129

Typical language development

6 Months

12 Months

18 Months24 Months

36 Months

Similar stages


10/129

Typical language development6 Months

Responds to his name

Responds to human voices without

visual cues by turning his head and

eyes

Responds appropriately to friendly

and angry tones


11/129

Typical language development12 Months

Uses one or more words with meaning

(this may be a fragment of a word) Understands simple instructions,

especially if vocal or physical cues aregiven

Practices inflection

Is aware of the social value of speech


12/129

18 Month s Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20words

Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns

Some echolalia (repeating a word or phraseover and over)

Is able to follow simple commands



13/129

24 Month s

Can name a number of objects common to his

surroundings

Is able to use at least two prepositions

Combines words into a short sentence (telegraphic)

Vocabulary of approximately 150-300words

Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled



14/129

36 Month s

Use pronouns I, you, me correctly

Is using some plurals and past tenses

Knows at least three prepositions

Handles three word sentences easily

Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000words

About 90% of what child says should be intelligible

Verbs begin to predominate



15/129

In the beginning Prelinguistic communication

and the womb

We experience language before were even

born Normal human language uses sounds between

100 and 4000 Hz

Sound travels through skin and fluids too

In the womb, sounds up to 1000 Hz

Cant hear individual words

But can hear:

Intonation, durations, rhythm, stress

What was that?

Youre

mumbling.


16/129


and the womb


born DeCasper & Spence (1986)

Had mothers read stories everydayto fetuses during final 6 weeks ofpregnancy

After babies were born tested to seeif babies preferred familiar story overnovel one

Results: babies preferred the familiarstories

Non-Nutritive Sucking

method


17/129


and the womb


born Mahler et al. (1988, in France)

4 day old babies

Non-Nutritive Sucking method

Played French or Russian

Sucking pattern changed iflanguage was switched

Sucking pattern didnt change iflanguage wasnt switched

Babies knew (something about) the

languages (most likely prosody)


18/129


and the womb


born DeCasper, et al (1994)Fetal heart monitor


19/129


and the womb


born DeCasper, et al (1994)

Same story

Different story

Had mothers read stories everydayto fetuses during 34-38 weeks ofpregnancy

After 38th week, two stories wereplayed to the fetuses (but momcouldnt hear it)

Fetal heart monitor


20/129


and the womb



Same story

Different story



Fetal heart monitor


21/129


and the womb





Same story

Different story

Decreased fetal

heart-rate

Baby learned something about

the story before it was born!

Fetal heart monitor


22/129

The early days

After birth

Prelinguistic communication

Phonological differences are key

Slower

Higher in pitch

More variable in pitch

More exaggerated intonation

All may help to orient and maintainattention of infant

Typically deal with the here & now

May help bootstraplater learning

Child-directed speech (motherese)


23/129

The early days

After birth

Prelinguistic communication

Turn taking behaviors

From the movie - breast feedingconversations

Parents interpret infantsvocalizations as having meaning

(also from the movie, Snows work)

Earlyconversations


24/129

The early days: gestures Prelinguistic gestures (around 8 months)

Demonstration that the infant is trying to

communicate in some way e.g., pointing behaviors

Criteria

Waiting

Persistence

Development of alternative plans


25/129

Sharp phoneme boundary

1 ... 3 5 7

% /ba/

100

0

Eimas et al, (1971) Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds)

The early days: phonology

Young infants can

distinguish different

phonemes


26/129


A number of studies suggest that very young

infants can perceive between a number ofphonemic distinctions (e.g., Kuhl & Meltzhoff, 1997) Not limited to their language context

However, as they age/experience their contextlanguage the ability to perceive some of these

distinctions are lost (~10 to 12 months)

Categorical perception in infants

Nature/nurture debate: Are humans pre-programmedto distinguish speech

sounds?


27/129

1 ... 3 5 7

% /ba/

100

0

Sharp phoneme boundary

Eimas et al, (1971) Categorical perception in infants (1 month olds)


Chinchillas do it too!Kuhl and Miller (1975)

Are they pre-

programmed to

perceive human

speech?

Were listening


28/129

The early days: speech production Vocal track differences

Infants vocal tracts are smaller, and initially shaped differently The infants tongue fills the entire mouth, reducing the range of

movement

As the facial skeleton grows, the range for movement increases (which

probably contributes to the increased variety of sounds infants start to

produce)

May be (in part) why production lags behind comprehension

Infant Adult
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_developmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_development


29/129

Speech production The progression of cooing and babbling

follows a universal pattern.

Role of both nature and nurture Nature/Biology plays an important role in the

emergenceof cooing & babbling.

The form of the childs vocalization is alsoaffected by the linguistic environment.

Babbling & other videos

Pre 6 weeksvegetativesounds Cry, burp, sucking noises

Post 6 weekcooingand laterbabbling
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=22AF4C6D41EBA20Bhttp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=22AF4C6D41EBA20B


30/129

6 - 8 weeks: cooing

4 - 6 months: babbling

The progression of cooing and babblingfollows a universal pattern.

Babies, until around 6 months old, can producesounds/phonemes that their parents cannotproduce or distinguish

Clear consonants and vowels are produced

da, gi

Speech production


31/129

6 - 8 weeks: cooing




6 - 7 months: Reduplicated babbling dada, gigi

Speech production


32/129

Speech production

6 - 8 weeks: cooing




6 - 7 months: Reduplicated babbling

8 - 9 months: CVC clusters may appear bod, tat


33/129

Speech production The progression of cooing and babbling

follows a universal pattern.


10 or 11 months: Variegated babbling Combining incomprehensible words

dab gogotah

Intonation patterns

May reflect phonological rules of spoken languagecontext

By 12 to 14 months some evidence of language

specific phonological rules


34/129

The first wordsOf course he said arf.

What else did you expect

his first word to be?


35/129

Language Sponges

About 3,000 new words per year, especially in the primarygrades

As many as 8 new words per day

Production typically lags behind comprehension

Learning words

12 ms first words

2 yrs 200 words3 yrs 1,000 words

6 yrs 15,000 words


36/129

Language Sponges Lots of individual differences

But there is also a consistent pattern


37/129

Vocabulary growth Methods used to study this

Observational data (60s to present)

Diary studies

Parents record their kids language development Taped language samples (Roger Brown)

Small numbers of children (Eve, Adam, Sarah)

Went to home every month made tape recordings

Extensive study needed

Hard to kids to say all the words you knowor say a

question

Early phonological production isnt like adult production,

often need to take great care deciding what the childmeant

Large database CHILDES

Many kids, many languages, including children with languagedifficulties
http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/


38/129

Language Sponges Learning words

General patterns and observations

Sounds

Meaning

Proposed Strategies

Fast mapping

Whole object Mutual exclusivity

Learning Syntax

Learning Morphology


39/129

Early word learning First words (Around 10-15 months)

Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of

phonologically consistent forms 1 word stage typically lasts around 10 months

Have learned first 50 words by 1524 months

Typically focused on the here and now


40/129

Early word learning

Developed in systematic ways

Not simply imitation, rather are creative

Learned importance of consistency of names

First words (Around 10-15 months) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of

phonologically consistent forms Id iomorphs- personalized words

Adult words- Typically context bound (relevant to theimmediate environment)

Important people, Objects that move, Objects that can beacted upon, Familiar actions

Nouns typically appear before verbs


41/129

What kinds of words? 1-general names

dog

2- specific names mommy

3-action words bye-bye

4-modifiers

red

5-personal/social yes, no, please

6-functional what


42/129

Early speech production Transition to speech

This is your fis?Your fis?Oh, your fish.

No. my fis.No. My fis!Yes, my fis.


43/129

Early speech productionThis is your fis?

Transition to speechNo, my fis.

Your fis. No, my fis.

Oh, your fish. Yes, my fis.

Cant hear the difference?

Rejects adult saying fis Cant produce the correct

sounds? Sometimes, but evidence

suggests not always the case

More general process ofsimplification frees upresources for

concentrating on other aspects oflanguage learning


44/129

Early speech production

Common Phonological processes

Reduction Delete sounds from words (dafor dog)

Coalescence

Combine different syllables into one syllable (paffor pacifier)

Assimilation

Change one sound into a similar sound within theword (fweetfor sweet)

Reduplication

One syllable from a multi-syllabic word is repeated(babafor bottle)

Transition to speech individual diffs, but some common processes


45/129

Extensions of meaning

Extension

Finding the appropriate limits of the meaning ofwords

Underextension

Applying a word too narrowly

Overextension

Applying a word too broadly

Applying the words to referents


46/129


tee


47/129


tee1:9,11


48/129


tee1:9,11

1:10,18


49/129


tee

googie

1:9,11

1:10,18

1:11,1


50/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie


51/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie

1:11,24


52/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie

1:11,241:11,25 tee/hosh


53/129


54/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie

1:11,241:11,25 tee/hosh1:11,26 hosh1:11,27 pushi


55/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie

1:11,241:11,25 tee/hosh1:11,26 hosh1:11,27 pushi2:0,10 moo-

ka

hosh


56/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie


ka

hosh2:0,20

biggie


57/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie


ka

hosh2:0,20

biggieoo ie

One-word-per-referent heuristic

If a new word comes in for a referent that is already named, replace it

Exception to that was

horse,

but it only lasted a day here


58/129

Strategies for learning

1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie


ka

hosh2:0,20

biggieoo ie

Expansion and contraction can occur at the same time


59/129


1:9,11

1:10,18

tee

1:11,1

1:11,2

googie


ka

hosh2:0,20

biggieoo ie

Child tries different things, if a word doesnt work thentry something else

e.g., hosh didnt for for the large dog, switched to

biggie doggie


60/129


61/129

Quines gavagai problem The problem of reference:

a word may refer to a number of referents (real

world objects) a single object or event has many objects, parts

and features that can be referred to

FrogFrog?

Green?

Ugly?

Jumping?


62/129

Learning word meanings

Fast mapping (Carey & Bartlett, 1978)

Using the context to guess the meaning of a word

Learning words

Please give me the chromium tray. Not

the blue one, the chromium one.

All got the olive tray

Several weeks later still had some of the meaning


63/129

Constraints on Word Learning

Perhaps children are biasedto entertain certain

hypotheses about word meanings over others These first guesses save them from logical ambiguity

Get them started out on the right track

Object-scope (whole object) constraint

Taxonomic constraint

Mutual exclusivity constraint

Learning words Cognitive Constraints (Markman, 1989)


64/129

Object-scope (whole object) constraint

Words refer to whole objects rather than to parts of

objects


Dog


65/129

Show me another lux

Here is a lux

Taxonomic constraint

Words refer to categories of similar objects

Taxonomies rather than thematically related obejcts



66/129

But in no-wordconditions, they would be

shown the first picture

See this? Can you find another one?



67/129

4 and 5 year olds' choice of theme vs. category

No word condition Novel word condition%T

heme/Category

Theme

Category



68/129

they choose the corkscrew

because it is a less well known object for which they

dont have a label yet.

Show me a dax:

Mutual exclusivity constraint(Markam and Watchel 1988)

Each object has one label & different words refer to

separate, non-overlapping categories of objects

An object can have only one label



69/129

Problem with constraints

Most of the constraints proposed apply only to objectnames. What about verbs? (Nelson 1988)

There have been cases where children have beenobserved violating these constraints Using for example the word caronly to refer to cars moving

on the street from a certain location(Bloom 1973)

The mutual exclusivity constraint would preventchildren from learning subordinate and superordinateinformation (animal < dog < poodle)


70/129

The language explosion is notjust the result of simple

semantic development; the child is notjust adding

more words to his/her vocabulary.

Child is mastering basic syntactic and morphological

processes.

Language explosion continues


71/129

Syntax

Mean length of u tterance (MLU) in morphemes

Take 100 utterances and count the number ofmorphemes per utterance


Daddy coming. Hi, car. Daddy car comed. Two car outside. Itgetting dark. Allgone outside. Bye-bye outside.

# morphemes: 3, 2, 4, 3, 4, 2, 2-ingand -edseparate

morphemes

allgonetreated as a single word

MLU = morphemes/utterances

= 20/7 = 2.86


72/129

Syntax

Mean length of u tterance (MLU) in morphemes


0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 20 40 60

age (months)

MLU


73/129

Proto-syntax (??)

Holophrases (around 1-1.5 years)

Single-word utterances may be used to express more than the

meaning usually attributed to that single word by adults


dog

might refer to the dog is drinking water

Typically idiosyncratic, but some conventional/common (e.g.,

indicate the existence of an object, request recurrence of objector event)

Often combined with intonation or gesture

Controversial claim: May reflect a developing sense of syntax,

but not yet knowing how to use it (e.g., see Bloom, 1973)


74/129

Syntax Roger Brown (1973) proposed 5 stages

Stage 1: Telegraphic speech (MLU ~ 1.75; around 24 months)

Children begin to combine words into utterances Limited to a small set of semantic relations (e.g., nomination,

recurrence, attribution, possession [see table 10.3 for examples])

Debate: learning semantic relations or syntactic (position rules)

baby sleepagent+action or Noun Verb


Children in telegraphic speech stage are said to leave out the little

wordsand inflections:

e.g. Mummy shoe NOT Mummys shoe

Two cat NOT two cats


75/129

More than two words

Stages 2 through 5

Stage 2 (MLU ~2.25)

begin to modulate meaning using word order (syntax)

Modulations for number, time, aspect

Gradual acquisition of grammatical morphemes (-ing, -s

Later stages reflect generally more complex use of syntax (e.g.,

questions, negatives)


Syntax Roger Brown (1973) proposed 5 stages


76/129

Innateness accounts Semantic bootstrapping

Learned accounts Acquired from the linguistic input from the environment

It is in the stimulus

How do kids learn the syntax?


77/129

Innateness account Pinker (1984, 1989)

Semantic bootstrapping


Child has innate

knowledge of

syntactic categories

and linking rulesChild learns the

meanings of

some content words Child constructs somesemantic representations

of simple sentencesChild makes guesses

about syntactic structure

based on surface form

and semantic meaning


78/129

It is in the stimulusaccounts (e.g. Bates, 1979)

Speech to children is not impoverished (Snow, 1977)

Children learn grammar by mapping semantic roles (agent,

action, patient) onto grammatical categories (subject, verb,

object)

In all languages there are multiple potential cues indicating

semantic/syntactic relations (e.g., word order, case marking)

Similar words occur in similar linguistic contexts

Acoustic information (e.g., prosody) may provide syntactic cues

Children do not need innate knowledge to learn grammar



79/129

Morphology Typically things like inflections and prepositions start around

MLU of 2.5 (usually in 2 yr olds)

Remember the Wug experiment (Berko-Gleason, 1958)

Acquiring Morphology


80/129

Morphology


This person knows how to rick. She did the same thing yesterday.

Yesterday she ________.

Typically children say that she ricked.


81/129


Age (yrs) Morpheme Example(s)

2 Present progressive I driving

2 Articles A dog, the doctor

2 Plural Balls

2 Uncontractible Copula He is asleep, am, are

3 Third person singular He wantsan apple

3 Full progressive Be + ing, I am singing3 Regular past tense She walked

Morphology: order of acquisition


82/129


Children sometimes make mistakes.

My teacher holded the baby rabbits.Yes

She holded the baby rabbits.

Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbit?What did you say she did?

No, she holded them loosely.

Did you say held them tightly?


83/129


This is ungrammatical in the adult language

Shows that children are not simply imitating In this case, what they produce something that is not in their

input.


My teacher holded the baby rabbits.


84/129

Why do they make errors like these?

In the case at hand, we have what is called overregularization The verb holdhas an irregular past tense form, held

Because this form is used, the regular past tense-- that with -

ed-- is not found (*hold-ed)



My teacher holded the baby rabbits.


85/129


Examples:

Horton heareda Who

I findedRene The alligator goedkerplunk

The case of verb past tense: Regular verb forms require no stored knowledge of the

past tense form (wugtest)

Past tense is accomplished by applying a past tenserule (e.g., add -ed) to the verb stem

With irregular verbs something must be memorized


86/129

Stages in the acquisition of irregular inflections


With regular verbs, the default form -edis used

With irregulars, lists associating the verb with a

particular form of the past tense have to be memorized:

Past tense is -twhen attached to leave, keep, etc.

Is -> was

Dig -> dug

Has -> had

The case of verb past tense:


87/129


Examples Step Description Noun Verb Adjective1

No inflecti on

Ma n

G o

B a d

2 Adult form Me n Went Worse 3 Overregularization Mans Goed Badder4 Transition Mens Wented Worser5 Adult form Men Went Worse

Stages in the acquisition of irregular inflections

time

On the face of it, learning these morphological quirks follows a

peculiar pattern: Early: correct irregular forms are used

Middle: incorrect regular forms are used

Late: correct forms are used again


88/129

Memory & Rules

Why do we find this type of pattern?

Memory and rules

The use of overregularized forms starts at around the

same that that the child is beginning to apply the default-ed rule successfully

Early: All forms-- whether regular or irregular-- are

memorized

Middle: The regular rule is learned, and in some cases

overapplied

Late: Irregulars are used based on memory, regulars use

the rule (the idea is that if the word can provide its own

past tense from memory, then the past tense rule is

blocked)


89/129

Memory & Rules

Why do we find this type of pattern?

Memory and rules

Other accounts

Maratsos (2000)frequency explanation

It is possible to predict which verbs will be subject tooverregularization

The more often an irregular form occurs in the input, theless likely the child is to use it as an overregularization

This is evidence that some part of overregularizationoccurs because of memory failures

Something about irregulars is unpredictable, hencehas to be memorized


90/129


91/129

What kind of teachingdo kids get?

Are the kids even aware of mistakes?

The children are apparently aware of the fact that their

forms are strange:

Parent: Wheres Mommy?

Child: Mommy goed to the store

Parent: Mommy goed to the store?

Child: NO! Daddy, I say it that way, not you


92/129

Positive and negative evidence

Positive evidence: Kids hear grammatical

sentences

Negative evidence:information that a given

sentence is ungrammatical Kids are not told which sentences are ungrammatical

(no negativeevidence)

Lets consider no negative evidencefurther

What kind of feedback is available for learning?


93/129

What kind of teachingdo kids get?

How much Positive Evidence is there?

Estimated 50007000 utterances a day

Between and 1/3 are questions

Over 20% are not fulladult sentences (typically Nounor prepositional phrases)

Only about 15% have typical English SVO form

Roughly 45% of all maternal utterances began with one

of 17 words (e.g., what, that, it, you)

Cameron-Faulkner, et al (2003)

So what kids do hear may be somewhat limited.


94/129

Negative evidence

Negative evidence could come in various

conceivable forms.

The sentence Bill a cookie ateis not a sentence in

English, Timmy. No sentence with SOV word orderis.

Upon hearing Bill a cookie ate, an adult might

Not understand

Look pained

Rephrase the ungrammatical sentence

grammatically


95/129

Kids resistinstruction

McNeill (1966)

Child:Nobody dont like me.

Adult:No, say nobody likes me.

Child:Nobody dont like me.

[repeats eight times]

Adult:No, now listen carefully; say nobody likes me.

Child:Oh! Nobody dont likes me.


96/129

Kids resistinstruction

Cazden (1972) (observation attributed to Jean Berko Gleason) Child:My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.

Adult:Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?

Child:Yes.

Adult:What did you say she did?

Child:She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.

Adult:Did you say she held them tightly?

Child:No, she holded them loosely.

So there doesnt seem to be a lot of explicit negative evidence, andwhat there is the kids often resist


97/129


98/129


99/129

In a way, its moot anyway

One of the striking things about child language is how few

errors they actually make.

For negative feedback to work, the kids have to make the errors

(so that it can get the negative response).

But they dont make enough relevant kinds of errors todetermine the complex grammar.

Pinker, Marcus and others, conclude that much of this stuff

must be innate.

But this isnt the only view. There is an ongoing debate about

whether there are rules, or whether these patterns of behaviorcan be learned based on the language evidence that is available

to the kids


100/129

Critical (sensitive) periods


101/129


Certain behavior is developed more quickly

within a critical period than outside of it. This

period is biologically determined.

Examples:

Imprinting in ducks (Lorenz, ; Hess, 1973)

Ducklings will follow the first moving thing they see

Only happens if they see something moving within the first

few hours (after 32 hours it wont happen) of hatching

Binocular cells in humans Cells in visual system that respond only to input from both

eyes.

If these cells dont get input from both eyes within first year

of life, they dont develop


102/129


Some environmental input is necessary for normal

development, but biology determines when the

organism is responsive to that input.

That whenis the critical period

Certain behavior is developed more quickly

within a critical period than outside of it. This

period is biologically determined.


103/129


104/129

Evidence for critical period for language

Feral Children

Children raised in the wild or with reduced exposure to

human language

What is the effect of this lack of exposure on languageacquisition?

Two classic cases

Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron

Genie


105/129

Victor, The Wild Boy of Aveyron

Found in 1800 near the outskirts of Aveyron, France

Estimated to be about 7-years-old

Considered by some to be the first documented case of autism

Neither spoke or responded to speech

Taken to and studied by Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, andeducator of deaf-mute and retarded children

Never learned to speak and his receptive language ability waslimited to a few simple commands.

Described by Itard as an almost normal boy who could not speak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Boy_of_Aveyronhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Boy_of_Aveyronhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)


106/129

Genie

Found in Arcadia, California in 1970, was notexposed to human language until age 13.5.

Raised in isolation a situation of extreme abuse

Genie could barely walk and could not talk when

found

Dr. Susan Curtiss made great efforts to teach herlanguage, and she did learn how to talk, but hergrammar never fully developed.

Only capable of producing telegraphic utterances(e.g. Mike paintorApplesauce buy store)

Used few closed-class morphemes and functionwords

Speech sounded like that of a 2-year-old
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)


107/129

Genie

By age of 17 (after 4 years of extensive training)

Vocabulary of a 5 year old

Poor syntax (telegraphic speech mostly)

Examples Mama wash hair in sink

At school scratch face

I want Curtiss play piano

Like go ride yellow school bus

Father take piece wood. Hit. Cry.


108/129

What Do These Cases Tell Us?

Suggestive of the position that there is a criticalperiod for first language learning (in particular forsyntax and phonological development) If child is not exposed to language during early childhood

(prior to the age of 6 or 7), then the ability to learn syntax willbe impaired while other abilities are less strongly affected

Not uncontroversial: Victor and Genie and children like themwere deprived in many ways other than not being exposed tolanguage

Genie stopped talking after age 30 and was institutionalizedshortly afterward (Rymer, 1993)


109/129

What Do These Cases Tell Us?

Suggestive of the position that there is a criticalperiod for first language learning (in particular forsyntax and phonological development)

Why? Nativist explanation (see pg 79 of text)

Maturational explanation: less is more


110/129

Second language learning

Learning a new language

What if we already know one language, but want to learn

another?

Adults learning another language typically have a persistentforeign accentperhaps a critical period for phonology

(Flege & Hillenbrand, 1984)

Adults typically do better initially at learning a new language

compared to kids, but kids typically do better over the long

term (Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1982)


111/129


112/129

Second language learning

Johnson and Newport (1989)

Native Chinese/Korean speakers moving to US

Task: Listen to sentences and judge whethergrammatically correct

Concluded that around the age of 16 somethinghappens

Different factors operate on language acquisition beforeand after the age of 16

Birdsong and Molis (2001)

Replicated the Johnson and Newport study inSpanish/English speakers.

Did not find a discontinuity around the age of 16


113/129

Effects of the Critical Period

Learning a language:

Under 7 years: perfect command of the language possible

Ages 8- c.15: Perfect command less possible progressively

Age 15-: Imperfect command possible But these claims are far from universally accepted


114/129

Bilinguals & Polyglots

Many people speak more than one language

Tucker (1999) - multilinguals outnumber monolinguals

What is the impact of knowing/using more than one

language? Factors affecting second language acquisition?

What does the lexicon look like?

Interesting effects in bilinguals

Interference

Code switching

Cognitive advantages
http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/digestglobal.htmlhttp://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/digestglobal.html


115/129

Second language acquisition

Contexts of childhood bilingualism Simultaneous

Both languages are acquired at the same time

Vocabulary growth of bilinguals is similar to that of monolinguals

Some aspects of acquisition may be slowed, but by age of 4typically caught up

Doesnt seem to matter whether languages are relatedor not(e.g., English - French versus English Japanese)

Can achieve fluencyin both languages

Sequential acquisition

The second language is learned after a first language When the second language (L2) is acquired is important

Early versus late learning (e.g., see the Johnson andNewport study)


116/129

Second language acquisition

Frequency of usage of both languages

How often and in what contexts do you use the two languages

Use it or lose it- language attrition

Mode of acquisition

Native bilingualism - growing up in a two language environment Immersion - schooling provided in a non-native language

Submersion - one learner surrounded by non-native speakers

Language dominance effects

Relative fluency of L1 and L2 may impact processing


117/129

How do we represent linguistic information in abilingual lexicon? Probably depends on many of the factors just discussed

Lets look at some models and research focusing on thesituation where L1 is dominant relative to L2

Bilingual Representations


118/129


119/129

Models of the bilingual lexicons

L1=First LanguageL2=Second Language

Paivio, Clark, & Lambert (1988): Common Stores

Modelswords from both languages in same store

L1 & L2

CONCEPTS


120/129

Revised Hierarchical Model

L1 L2

concepts

lexical

links

conceptuallinks

conceptuallinks

Kroll & Stewart (1994)

Proposed that the fluency of

L2 needs to be considered inthe processing model

The results are mixed,supporting more complexmodels

May be different in different bilingualsdepending on things like age of acquisition,relative proficiency, etc.


121/129


Interference

Code switching



122/129

Interference Does knowing two languages lead to interference?

When found, interference is at multiple levels

Phonological - least amount of interference

Lexical - mixing words from different languages

Initially, appear to use a one word per thing strategy

But as they realize there that theyre speaking two language,then theyll use words from both languages simultaneously

Syntactic

Until year two, may use only one syntactic system which iscommon to both languages

Then a brief period with two sets of lexical items, but still acommon syntax

Finally, two lexicons and two sets of syntax



123/129


Determine who or what is the one performing the action. The waitress pushes the cowboys.

The telephones pushes the cowboys.

Kisses the table the apple.

The baskets the teacher kicks.

As a native speaker of English we can use manycues:

Word order

Animacy

Verb agreement Not all languages use the same cues to the same

extent

e.g., German doesnt rely as much on word order, butrelies more on agreement processes


124/129


Determine who or what is the one performing the action. The waitress pushes the cowboys.

The telephones pushes the cowboys.

Kisses the table the apple.

The baskets the teacher kicks.

Kilborn (1989, 1994) Found that bilinguals (English as second language)

typically carry over the dominant processing strategiesfrom their native languages.

This interacts with their level of fluency in the secondlanguage


125/129

Code switching

When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from onelanguage with a phrase or word from another language

I want a motorcycle VERDE

Switching is systematic, not random


126/129



Code switching

The Spanish adjective verdefollows a grammatical rule that isobserved by most bilingual speakers that code-switch

I want a VERDE motorcycle

Would be incorrect because language switching can occur only if the adjective is placed

according to the rules of the language of the adjective

In this case, the adjective is in Spanish; therefore, the adjective mustfollow the Spanish grammatical rule that states that the noun mustprecede the adjective


127/129



Code switching

Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehendsentences containing code-switched words

May be due to a mental switch mechanismthat determines whichof the bilinguals two mental dictionaries are onor offduringlanguage comprehension.

This mental switch is responsible for selecting the appropriate mentaldictionary to be employed during the comprehension of a sentence.

E.g., if reading an English, a Spanish code-switched word isencountered, the mental switch must disable the English linguisticsystem, and enable the Spanish linguistic system.


128/129



Code switching

Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehendsentences containing code-switched words

This time difference depends on similarity of the languages

Chinese-English bilinguals take longer to recognize English code-

switched words in Chinese sentences only if the English words contain

initial consonant-consonant (e.g., flight) clusters, simply because the

Chinese language lacks this phonotactic structure.

Another current view suggests that language dominance (i.e.,

which language is used more frequently) plays an important role in

code-switching


129/129

Some evidence suggest that being bilingual can have

an impact on cognition outside of language

Bialystok and colleagues

Bilinguals are very proficient at switching between languages Bilinguals also have to be good at suppressing the contextually

inappropriate language


7.psycholinguistics12

Documents

Transcript of 7.psycholinguistics12