Can information theory explain early word choice
1979 ◽
Vol 6
(3)
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pp. 397-410
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Keyword(s):
ABSTRACTOne problem of interest in child language study has been specifying what features of the speech situation determine what children will say. Several cognitively based approaches to child language development have proposed principles of ‘informativeness’ to explain the child's choice of word(s). These principles predict that the child will choose the ‘most informative’ element of a situation and encode it in speech. Detailed inspection of this view reveals that the notion of ‘informativeness’ is not rigorously denned as in information theory, and would require the development of formal semantic and pragmatic information theories. Simpler accounts of available data do not require the notion of ‘information’.
2021 ◽
Vol 18
(5)
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pp. 2671
Keyword(s):
1987 ◽
Vol 14
(2)
◽
pp. 201-209
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Keyword(s):
2018 ◽
Vol 190
(13)
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pp. 2078-2092