Comprehension matters: a commentary on ‘A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition’

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 936-940 ◽  
Author(s):  
LETITIA R. NAIGLES
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Logical Problem ◽  
Process Solution ◽  
Multiple Process ◽  
The One ◽  
Probabilistic Nature

MacWhinney (2004) has provided a clear and welcome synthesis of many strands of the recent research addressing the logical problem of first language acquisition from a non-nativist or non-generative grammar framework. The strand that I will comment on is the one MacWhinney calls the ‘pivot’ of his proposal, namely, that acquiring a grammar is primarily a function of learning ITEM-BASEDPATTERNS (e.g. pp. 23–29, 41, passim). These item-based patterns serve a number of dominant roles within MacWhinney's proposal, including enforcing children's conservatism (thereby reducing greatly their overgeneralizations and need to recover from the same), supporting the probabilistic nature of grammar, and enabling the competition that promotes recovery from the overgeneralizations that do occur. My concern here is primarily with the first role, that of enforcing children's conservatism, and especially with the exclusive use of language PRODUCTION as the demonstrated support of this conservatism.

The Multiple Processes Approach: reply to commentaries on ‘A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition’ by Brian MacWhinney

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 963-968
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Process Approach ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Construction Monitoring ◽  
Logical Problem ◽  
Specific Target ◽  
Process Solution ◽  
Multiple Processes ◽  
Multiple Process

These twelve thoughtful commentaries demonstrate interesting shifts in our collective understanding of the ‘logical problem of language acquisition.’ The bulk of the commentary supports the multiple process approach to the logical problem. At the same time, there is strong and productive disagreement regarding the ways in which conservatism, competition, probabilistic identification, indirect negative evidence, item-based learning, cue construction, monitoring, and constraints make their separate and related contributions to the learning of specific target structures.

A Timeline for Acquisition of Farsi Consonants: A First Language Acquisition Corpus-based Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1711
Author(s):  
Mohammad Saber Khaghaninejad ◽  
Amirsaeid Moloodi ◽  
Rahim Fahandej Saadi
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
One Year ◽  
The One ◽  
Iranian Children

This study is one of the first endeavors in the realm of Farsi acquisition as the first language. The one-year utterances of five Iranian children were meticulously observed to determine the onset of steady perfect articulation of each consonant. The corpora were available from CHILDES which is the largest database for children’s corpus-based studies. Corpora analysis revealed that [w] and [ʒ] had been perfectly pronounced before the study initiated; [f] was accomplished before the 40th month; [m] and [x] were perfectly enunciated in the 42nd  month while the pronunciation [v] was idealized in the 44th  month along with [b], [d], [h] and [g]; [t], [n] and two approximants were perfectly produced in the 46th  month and [s] got its steady idealized pronunciation in the 48th  month;  [r] in addition to affricates and [z] and [ʃ] were in the process of completion when the inquiry terminated. 8 consonants from a total of 23 found their idealized articulations between the 43rd and 46th months of age.

scholarly journals First and second language acquisition: Towards a reconcillation

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-140
Author(s):  
Nicole Nau
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract For the past two decades, research on first language acquisition on the one side, and on second language acquisition and learning on the other have largely developed separately, probably as a reaction to the failure of earlier attempts to use the same methods or simply transfer insights gained in one of the fields to the other. T his article argues that a reconciliation may be fruitful, provided that different aspects which have often got blurred in the discussion are considered separately. These aspects include the assessment of multilingualism and monolingualism, the age factor and the definition of “first” and “second” language, the understanding of linguistic competence and of completeness of acquisition, different forms of acquisition and learning, and uniformity vs. individual differences in the process of language acquisition. By challenging some widely held views on characteristics of first language acquisition and its differences to second language learning, more fine-grained research questions are revealed, some of which have been addressed in recent studies on language acquisition and multilingualism

Research on First Language Acquisition of Spanish Phonology

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Conxita Lleó
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Morphological Development ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Spanish Phonology ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
Impaired Children

AbstractThis paper deals with research on acquisition of Spanish phonology by young children. The beginnings of this discipline are placed within the model of Generative Grammar, at the end of the 1960s. The two main areas of phonology are considered: on the one hand segments, and certain chronological sequences of segment acquisition, and on the other hand prosody, i.e. syllables, stress, intonation and rhythm. The most important issues of acquisition research are presented, including the relationship between perception and production, the role of prosody in acquisition, underlying representations, and the dependency of morphology on prosody. The main models of the field are also discussed, namely rules, parameters and constraints. The beginnings of morphological development and its dependence on phonology are briefly discussed as well. Finally, the acquisition of Spanish phonology in bilingual contexts is also described. The paper deals exclusively with normal first language acquisition, and does not refer to speech language impaired children nor to second language acquisition.

Learnability, stochastic input, and connectionist networks: a response to Brian MacWhinney's ‘A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition’

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 954-958
Author(s):  
DOUGLAS L. T. ROHDE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Logical Problem ◽  
Process Solution ◽  
Connectionist Networks ◽  
The Status ◽  
Multiple Process ◽  
Stochastic Input ◽  
Do So

I would like to begin by clarifying some technical points regarding learnability and Gold's theorem and will work my way around to advocating the power of distributed connectionist networks. I may wind up repeating much of what MacWhinney has already said, but I hope to do so in a manner that clarifies the status of and relationship between his seven solutions to the language acquisition problem.

What can be learned from positive data? Insights from an ‘ideal learner’. Commentary on ‘A Multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition’ by Brian MacWhinney

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 915-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICK CHATER
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Minimum Description Length ◽  
Minimum Description Length Principle ◽  
Logical Problem ◽  
Process Solution ◽  
Positive Data ◽  
Multiple Process ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Ideal Learner

MacWhinney's stimulating discussion suggests that there are many lines of argument that may address concerns raised by theorists who are concerned that there is a logical problem of language acquisition. This commentary argues: (1) that if the ‘logical problem’ applied to language, it would apply, with curious consequences to any learning by experience; (2) that the logical problem does not apply – given sufficient positive data from any reasonable language, language can be learned, in a probabilistic sense, by an ‘ideal learner’ using a simplicity principle; and (3) that a simplicity, or minimum description length, principle may provide a useful methodology for assessing claims concerning learnability of particular linguistic structures.

Infant-Directed Speech Effects in Adult Artificial Grammar Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Sára Lukics ◽  
Ágnes Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Learning Rates

First language acquisition is facilitated by several characteristics of infant-directed speech, but we know little about their relative contribution to learning different aspects of language. We investigated infant-directed speech effects on the acquisition of a linear artificial grammar in two experiments. We examined the effect of incremental presentation of strings (starting small) and prosody (comparing monotonous, arbitrary and phrase prosody). Presenting shorter strings before longer ones led to higher learning rates compared to random presentation. Prosody marking phrases had a similar effect, yet, prosody without marking syntactic units did not facilitate learning. These studies were the first to test the starting small effect with a linear artificial grammar, and also the first to investigate the combined effect of starting small and prosody. Our results suggest that starting small and prosody facilitate the extraction of regularities from artificial linguistic stimuli, indicating they may play an important role in natural language acquisition.

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