scholarly journals Nobody Doesn’t Like Negative Concord

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mora Maldonado ◽  
Jennifer Culbertson
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
The Status ◽  
Negative Marker

AbstractLanguages vary with respect to whether sentences with two negative elements give rise to double negation or negative concord meanings. We explore an influential hypothesis about what governs this variation: namely, that whether a language exhibits double negation or negative concord is partly determined by the phonological and syntactic nature of its negative marker (Zeijlstra 2004; Jespersen 1917). For example, one version of this hypothesis argues that languages with affixal negation must be negative concord (Zeijlstra 2008). We use an artificial language learning experiment to investigate whether English speakers are sensitive to the status of the negative marker when learning double negation and negative concord languages. Our findings fail to provide evidence supporting this hypothesised connection. Instead, our results suggest that learners find it easier to learn negative concord languages compared to double negation languages independently of whether the negative marker is an adverb or an affix. This is in line with evidence from natural language acquisition (Thornton et al. 2016).

scholarly journals Do children privilege phonological cues in noun class learning?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Culbertson ◽  
Kenny Smith ◽  
Hanna Jarvinen ◽  
Frances Haggarty
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Noun Class

Previous research on acquisition of noun class systems, such as grammatical gender, has shown that child learners rely disproportionately on phonological cues to class, even when competing semantic cues are more reliable. Culbertson, Gagliardi, and Smith (2017) use artificial language learning experiments with adults to argue that over-reliance on phonology may be due to the fact that phonological cues are available first; learners base early representations on surface phonological dependencies, only later integrating semantic cues from noun meanings. Here, we show that child learners (6-7 year-olds) show this same sensitivity to early availability. However, we also find intriguing evidence of developmental changes in sensitivity to semantics; when both cues are simultaneously available children are more likely to rely on a phonology cue than adults. Our results suggest that early availability and a bias in favor of phonological cues may both contribute to children’s over- reliance on phonology in natural language acquisition.

scholarly journals Children’s sensitivity to phonological and semantic cues during noun class learning: evidence for a phonological bias

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Culbertson ◽  
Hanna Jarvinen ◽  
Frances Haggarty ◽  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Phonological Information ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Cue Use ◽  
Noun Class

Previous research on the acquisition of noun classification systems (e.g., grammatical gender) has found that child learners rely disproportionately on phonological cues to determine the class of a new noun, even when competing semantic cues are more reliable in their language. Culbertson, Gagliardi, and Smith (2017) argue that this likely results from the early availability of phonological information during acquisition; learners base their initial representations on formal features of nouns, only later integrating semantic cues from noun meanings . Here, we use artificial language learning experiments to show that early availability drives cue use in children (67 year-olds). However, we also find evidence of developmental changes in sensitivity to semantics; when both cues types are simultaneously available, children are more likely to rely on phonology than adults. Our results suggest that early availability and a bias favoring phonological cues both contribute to children’s over-reliance on phonology in natural language acquisition.

scholarly journals The status of word-final phonetic phenomena

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 599
Author(s):  
Megan Rouch ◽  
Anya Lunden
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Speech Stream ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Word Level ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Right

The right edge of the word is a known domain for processes like phonological devoicing. This has been argued to be the effect of analogy from higher prosodic domains, rather than an in situ motivated change (Hock 1999, Hualde and Eager 2016). Phonetic word-level phenomena of final lengthening and final devoicing have been found to occur natively word-finally (Lunden 2006, 2017, Nakai et al. 2009) despite claims that they have no natural phonetic pressure originating in this position (Hock 1999). We present the results of artificial language learning studies that seek to answer the question of whether phonetic-level cues to the word-final position can aid in language parsing. If they do, it provides evidence that listeners can make use of word-level phonetic phenomena, which, together with studies that have found them to be present, speaks to their inherent presence at the word level. We find that adult listeners are better able to recognize the words they heard in a speech stream, and better able to reject words that they did not hear, when final lengthening was present at the right edge of the word. Final devoicing was not found to give the same boost to parsing.

scholarly journals Complexity and naturalness biases in phonotactics: Hayes and White (2013) revisited

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Prickett
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Experimental Finding ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Artificial Language Learning

Hayes and White (2013) found that English speakers rate words that violate natural phonotactic constraints as worse than words that violate unnatural ones. Their “natural” constraints both enforced typologically common restrictions and were phonetically grounded, while their unnatural constraints met neither criterion. They used this experimental finding as evidence for a learning bias in favor of natural constraints. The strength of this conclusion was weakened by the presence of a confound: the unnatural constraints were also more structurally complex. This paper presents the results from an experiment that replicated Hayes and White, but added complexity as a variable of interest. The results suggest that naturalness and complexity both affect phonological acquisition: supporting the conclusions of Hayes and White (2013), but differing from the findings of most artificial language learning studies.

Negation and First Language Acquisition

2020 ◽  
pp. 598-614
Author(s):  
Rosalind Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Standard English ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Hierarchical Position ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Negative Marker

This chapter investigates children’s acquisition of negation from a cross-linguistic perspective. The chapter reviews topics in the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of negation in children’s grammars. Discussion of the syntax of negation in early grammars includes the hierarchical position of negation in children’s early structures, internal versus external negation, and the syntactic category of the negative marker. Topics relevant to 3- to 5-year-old grammars include children’s access to double negation, whether or not children acquiring Standard English permit negative concord as part of their core grammar, and children’s negative question structures. Children’s acquisition of the semantics of negation is covered in a discussion of negation as a licensor of any and of disjunction. The investigations underline the importance of providing appropriate pragmatic contexts in experiments targeting children’s production and comprehension of negation.

Learning Paradigmatic Structure

2018 ◽  
pp. 179-200
Author(s):  
Vsevolod Kapatsinski
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Production Plan ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Paradigmatic Structure ◽  
New Evidence

This chapter reviews research on the acquisition of paradigmatic structure (including research on canonical antonyms, morphological paradigms, associative inference, grammatical gender and noun classes). It discusses the second-order schema hypothesis, which views paradigmatic structure as mappings between constructions. New evidence from miniature artificial language learning of morphology is reported, which suggests that paradigmatic mappings involve paradigmatic associations between corresponding structures as well as an operation, copying an activated representation into the production plan. Producing a novel form of a known word is argued to involve selecting a prosodic template and filling it out with segmental material using form-meaning connections, syntagmatic and paradigmatic form-form connections and copying, which is itself an outcome cued by both semantics and phonology.

Learning biases in opaque interactions

Phonology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-653
Author(s):  
Brandon Prickett
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Learning Biases ◽  
Learning Experiment ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Harmonic Serialism

This study uses an artificial language learning experiment and computational modelling to test Kiparsky's claims about Maximal Utilisation and Transparency biases in phonological acquisition. A Maximal Utilisation bias would prefer phonological patterns in which all rules are maximally utilised, and a Transparency bias would prefer patterns that are not opaque. Results from the experiment suggest that these biases affect the learnability of specific parts of a language, with Maximal Utilisation affecting the acquisition of individual rules, and Transparency affecting the acquisition of rule orderings. Two models were used to simulate the experiment: an expectation-driven Harmonic Serialism learner and a sequence-to-sequence neural network. The results from these simulations show that both models’ learning is affected by these biases, suggesting that the biases emerge from the learning process rather than any explicit structure built into the model.

scholarly journals Compositional Hierarchical Structure Evolves through Cultural Transmission: An Experimental Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Saldana ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Robert Truswell ◽  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Linguistics ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Iterated Learning

AbstractCompositional hierarchical structure is a prerequisite for productive languages; it allows language learners to express and understand an infinity of meanings from finite sources (i.e., a lexicon and a grammar). Understanding how such structure evolved is central to evolutionary linguistics. Previous work combining artificial language learning and iterated learning techniques has shown how basic compositional structure can evolve from the trade-off between learnability and expressivity pressures at play in language transmission. In the present study we show, across two experiments, how the same mechanisms involved in the evolution of basic compositionality can also lead to the evolution of compositional hierarchical structure. We thus provide experimental evidence showing that cultural transmission allows advantages of compositional hierarchical structure in language learning and use to permeate language as a system of behaviour.

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