Input–output relations in Hebrew verb acquisition at the morpho-lexical interface

AbstractThis study examined early Hebrew verb acquisition, highlighting CDS–CS relations across inflectional and derivational verb learning. It was carried out on a corpus of longitudinal dense dyadic interactions of two Hebrew-speaking toddlers aged 1;8–2;2 and their parents. Findings revealed correlated patterns within and between CDS and CS corpora in terms of verbs, structural root categories, and their components (roots, binyan conjugations, and derivational verb families), and clear relations between lexical-derivational development and inflectional growth in input–output relations, measured by MSP. It also showed that both corpora had few, yet highly semantically coherent, derivational families. Lexical learning in Hebrew was shown to be morphologically oriented, with both inflectional and derivational learning supporting and being supported by the development of the verb lexicon. These findings support findings in the general literature regarding the close relationship between parental input and child speech, and the affinity between lexical and grammatical growth.

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Structure and meaning in the verb lexicon: Input for a syntax-aided verb learning procedure

Language and Cognitive Processes ◽

10.1080/01690969408402129 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 473-517 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Cynthia Fisher

Keyword(s):

Verb Learning ◽

Learning Procedure ◽

Verb Lexicon

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The development of the causative construction in Persian child language

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000915000057 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 42 (6) ◽

pp. 1337-1378

Author(s):

NEILOUFAR FAMILY ◽

SHANLEY E. M. ALLEN

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

Developmental Stages ◽

Child Language ◽

Verb Learning ◽

Light Verb ◽

Light Verb Construction ◽

Child Speech ◽

Causative Construction

AbstractThe acquisition of systematic patterns and exceptions in different languages can be readily examined using the causative construction. Persian allows four types of causative structures, including one productive multiword structure (i.e. the light verb construction). In this study, we examine the development of all four structures in Persian child speech between the ages of 1;11 and 6;7, in correspondence with their caregivers’ speech. We define developmental stages based on dendrograms derived from variability clustering (Gries & Stoll, 2009). These stages are further substantiated by qualitative data, including overgeneralization errors and alternating structures. We find that Persian-speaking children learn to exploit two (i.e. lexical and light verb construction causatives) of the four constructions. They go from relying on lexical causatives to forming progressively constrained templates for the more complex light verb construction. This first study of the development of Persian causatives supports a usage-based account of verb-by-verb learning in child language development.

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Why theories of word learning don't always work as theories of verb learning

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x01320137 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 1113-1114

Author(s):

Letitia R. Naigles

Keyword(s):

Word Learning ◽

Early Event ◽

Verb Learning ◽

Linguistic Information ◽

Object Concept ◽

Verb Acquisition

Bloom's theory of word learning has difficulty accounting for children's verb acquisition. There is no predominant preverbal event concept, akin to the preverbal object concept, to direct children's early event-verb mappings. Children may take advantage of grammatical and linguistic information in verb acquisition earlier than Bloom allows. A distinction between lexical and grammatical learning is difficult to maintain for verb acquisition.

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Acquisition of a Verb-Subject-Object Miniature Linguistic System by Adults

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.2304.787 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 787-801 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

James A. Till ◽

Howard Goldstein

Keyword(s):

Learning Effect ◽

Auditory Presentation ◽

Word Class ◽

Verb Learning ◽

Error Analyses ◽

Word Position ◽

Linguistic System ◽

The Subject ◽

Lexical Learning ◽

Object Shapes

Two experiments are reported. In the first, ten college-aged adults were exposed to a miniature linguistic system (MLS) and the referents it encoded. The referents included three shapes which functioned as subjects in the MLS, three shapes which functioned as objects, and three actions which functioned as verbs. Nine nonsense syllables were assigned to the referents. The MLS allowed only sentences of the form, verb-subject-object, to describe a subject-shape acting in a specific manner on an object-shape. Videotaped presentations of the shape and action referents and simultaneous auditory presentation of the appropriate MLS sentence were used during teaching trials. Testing trials containing no auditory presentations were alternated with the teaching trials. During testing trials, subjects were required to write MLS sentences to describe the shape-action referents presented. The data gathered during testing trials allowed the acquisition of each lexical item, each word-class, and the word-class ordering rule to be examined. The results of Experiment I showed that the actions were learned more quickly than either the subject-shapes or the object-shapes. Experiment II investigated possible reasons for the verb-learning advantage noted in Experiment I. Twelve college-aged adults learned shape names and action names as single word responses. The results of Experiment II suggest that the verb-learning advantage noted in Experiment I was due, at least in part, to a lexical learning effect rather than a syntactical learning effect, nonsense syllable mediation, or word position. Error analyses of Experiment I data support this conclusion. Implications of the findings and the experimental technique for language remediation are discussed.

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Verb Learning in Children With SLI

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/1092-4388(2005/097) ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 1397-1411 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

N. G. Riches ◽

M. Tomasello ◽

Gina Conti-Ramsden

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Control Group ◽

Verb Learning ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Language Impaired ◽

Repeated Measures Design ◽

Lexical Learning ◽

Impaired Children

Purpose: This study explored the effect of frequency (number of presentations), and spacing (period between presentations) on verb learning in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Children learn words more efficiently when presentations are frequent and appropriately spaced, and this study investigated whether children with SLI likewise benefit. Given that these children demonstrate greater frequency dependence and rapid forgetting of recently acquired words, an investigation of frequency and spacing in this population is especially warranted. Method: Twenty-four children with SLI (mean age 5;6 [years;months]) and 24 language-matched control children (mean age 3;4) were taught novel verbs during play sessions. In a repeated measures design, 4 experimental conditions combined frequency (12 or 18 presentations) and spacing (all presentations in 1 session, or spread over 4 days). Comprehension and production probes were administered after the final session and 1 week later. Results: Although the children with SLI benefited significantly from frequent and widely spaced presentations, there were no significant effect in the control group. The language-impaired children showed rapid forgetting. Conclusions: The frequency and spacing of presentations crucially affect the verb learning of children with SLI. A training regimen characterized by appropriately spaced intervals and moderate repetition will optimally benefit lexical learning.

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The role of explicit contrast in adjective acquisition: A cross-linguistic longitudinal study of adjective production in spontaneous child speech and parental input

First Language ◽

10.1177/0142723713503146 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 33 (6) ◽

pp. 594-616 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Elena Tribushinina ◽

Huub van den Bergh ◽

Marianne Kilani-Schoch ◽

Ayhan Aksu-Koç ◽

Ineta Dabašinskienė ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Parental Input ◽

Child Speech ◽

Adjective Acquisition

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Nouns before verbs in comprehension vs. production: the view from pragmatics

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000900004244 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 501-520 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

BEVERLY A. GOLDFIELD

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Data Base ◽

Speech Acts ◽

Speech Act ◽

Verb Learning ◽

Lexical Development ◽

English Speaking ◽

Child Speech ◽

Maternal Speech ◽

Child Age

This study examines pragmatic factors that bias English-speaking children to produce more of the nouns and fewer of the verbs that they know. If nouns are favoured for production, parents should elicit more nouns than verbs in child speech. If verb comprehension is favoured over verb production, parents should more often prompt children to produce an action than to produce a verb. Data from 44 parent–child (age 1;8) dyads in the New England directory of the CHILDES data base were analysed. Children produced more nouns than verbs but mothers produced more verbs than nouns. Speech act analyses indicate that mothers elicited noun production but rarely prompted children to produce verbs. Mothers more often prompted children to produce an action than to produce a verb, and verbs occurred most often in maternal speech acts used to elicit children's actions. Moreover, children comprehended many more verbs than they produced. These data suggest that production measures underestimate the frequency and significance of verb-learning in early lexical development.

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Systematic Modification of Parental Input to Train Language Symbols

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/0161-1461.1201.04 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 4-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Barbara Culatta ◽

Donna Horn

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Meaningful Use ◽

Hearing Impaired ◽

Specific Language ◽

Parental Input ◽

Language Exposure ◽

Therapy Sessions ◽

Impaired Children ◽

Hearing Impaired Children ◽

At Home

This study attempted to maximize environmental language learning for four hearing-impaired children. The children's mothers were systematically trained to present specific language symbols to their children at home. An increase in meaningful use of these words was observed during therapy sessions. In addition, as the mothers began to generalize the language exposure strategies, an increase was observed in the children's use of words not specifically identified by the clinician as targets.

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