The effects of linguistic experience on the flexible use of mutual exclusivity in word learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 626-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARINA KALASHNIKOVA ◽  
KAREN MATTOCK ◽  
PADRAIC MONAGHAN
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Linguistic Experience ◽  
Pragmatic Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
One To One ◽  
The One

Mutual Exclusivity (ME) is a prominent constraint in language acquisition, which guides children to establish one-to-one mappings between words and referents. But how does unfolding experience of multiple-to-one word-meaning mappings in bilingual children's environment affect their understanding of when to use ME and when to accept lexical overlap? Three-to-five-year-old monolingual and simultaneous bilingual children completed two pragmatically distinct tasks, where successful word learning relied on either the default use of ME or the ability to accept overlapping labels. All children could flexibly use ME by following the social-pragmatic directions available in each task. However, linguistic experience shaped the development of ME use, whereby older monolinguals showed a greater reliance on the one-to-one mapping assumption, but older bilinguals showed a greater ability to accept lexical overlap. We suggest that flexible use of ME is thus shaped by pragmatic information present in each communicative interaction and children's individual linguistic experience.

Using Speakers' Referential Intentions to Model Early Cross-Situational Word Learning

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 578-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Frank ◽  
Noah D. Goodman ◽  
Joshua B. Tenenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Object Individuation ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Inference Problems ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Situational Learning

Word learning is a “chicken and egg” problem. If a child could understand speakers' utterances, it would be easy to learn the meanings of individual words, and once a child knows what many words mean, it is easy to infer speakers' intended meanings. To the beginning learner, however, both individual word meanings and speakers' intentions are unknown. We describe a computational model of word learning that solves these two inference problems in parallel, rather than relying exclusively on either the inferred meanings of utterances or cross-situational word-meaning associations. We tested our model using annotated corpus data and found that it inferred pairings between words and object concepts with higher precision than comparison models. Moreover, as the result of making probabilistic inferences about speakers' intentions, our model explains a variety of behavioral phenomena described in the word-learning literature. These phenomena include mutual exclusivity, one-trial learning, cross-situational learning, the role of words in object individuation, and the use of inferred intentions to disambiguate reference.

scholarly journals Acceptance of lexical overlap by monolingual and bilingual toddlers

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1517-1530
Author(s):  
Marina Kalashnikova ◽  
Aimee Oliveri ◽  
Karen Mattock
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Linguistic Experience ◽  
Lexical Competence

Aims and Objectives: Mutual exclusivity refers to children’s assumption that there are one-to-one correspondences between words and their referents. It is proposed to guide the process of fast-mapping when children encounter novel words in referentially ambiguous situations. However, children are often required to suspend this default assumption and accept lexically overlapping labels, which is particularly common for bilingual children who learn multiple labels for most referents in their environment. Previous research has shown that school-aged bilinguals are more successful at learning overlapping labels than monolinguals, but the mechanisms underlying the development of this word-learning ability remain unknown. Methodology: This study investigated the ability to accept lexical overlap in monolingual and bilingual two-and-a-half-year-old children and its relation to children’s lexical competence. Children’s ability to retain two novel labels assigned to a novel referent was assessed in an interactive lexical overlap paradigm. In addition, parental inventories were used to measure children’s receptive vocabulary size and patterns of language exposure and use. Data and analysis: Data were collected from 68 (34 monolingual and 34 bilingual) children between 26 and 34 months of age. Binomial logistic regressions were used to assess the effects of children’s language background and their individual lexical competence (receptive vocabulary for monolinguals and bilinguals, and conceptual vocabulary size and degree of bilingualism for bilinguals). Findings: Results showed that vocabulary size was a significant predictor of lexical overlap performance for monolingual children, but this was not the case for bilinguals. Originality: These findings are the first to indicate that the individual linguistic experience of growing up monolingual or bilingual shapes the mechanisms that underlie the development and usage patterns of early word-learning strategies. Limitations: This study leaves open the question of what aspect of growing up bilingual leads children to develop word-learning strategies that are shaped by their linguistic experience.

scholarly journals Bilingual’s Advantages of not Using Mutual Exclusivity

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity

It is a known fact that monolingual children will take advantage of the principle of mutual exclusivity (ME) in the process of early word learning, i.e., the names of two different objects are mutually exclusive (one label for one referent). With the help of ME, they can expand their vocabulary effectively with a rapid speed. However, for bilingual children, it seems this principle is not that friendly to them, since they are exposed to two languages at the same time, so there could be at least two labels for the same referent. Hence bilingual children may be confused and encounter difficulties in learning words, which will slower their word learning process. This paper tries to, based on earlier research, probe into the question that how bilingual children acquire words without the help of ME, and explore whether there are advantages of not using ME in word learning for bilingual children.

scholarly journals Discursive environment as a medium for the social roles realization

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Roles ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
One Stage ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Research Material ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Basis

The article is focused on the study of the speech realization of social roles in the nuclear, marginal and peripheral zones of the speaker’s discursive environment through verbal and non-verbal communicative components. The speaker, who is in the focus of this research, performs certain social roles in interaction with other people. This kind of focus puts this work on the one stage with the latest human-centric research. The discursive interpretation of anthropocentrism is motivated by the need to fix communicative structures and operations that presuppose communicatively successful parties of a discursive personality. The social roles realization is reflected in linguistic and pragmatic features, namely, in the variability of verbal and non-verbal communicative components. The research material – dialogical discursive fragments displaying the change of roles configurations – allows to identify and describe the epistemological basis of successful communicative interaction. Discourse and linguopragmatic research tools help to establish the verbal and non-verbal communicative components used by the individual in different discursive environments and conditions for successful communication according to the type of ​​discursive environment and the distancing level of stance-subjects. The article grounds the interconnection between the social role and stance-taking, thus, explaining the potential of the discursive environment as a medium for the social roles realization.

scholarly journals Differences in word learning in children: Bilingualism or linguistic experience?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Maria Borragan ◽  
Angela de Bruin ◽  
Viktoria Havas ◽  
Ruth de Diego-Balaguer ◽  
Mila Dimitrova Vulchanova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Learning Phase ◽  
Replication Study ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Linguistic Experience ◽  
Similar Performance ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The current study examines how monolingual children and bilingual children with languages that are orthotactically similar and dissimilar learn novel words depending on their characteristics. We contrasted word learning for words that violate or respect the orthotactic legality of bilinguals’ languages investigating the impact of the similarity between those two languages. In Experiment 1, three groups of children around the age of 12 were tested: monolinguals, Spanish–Basque bilinguals (orthotactically dissimilar languages), and Spanish–Catalan bilinguals (orthotactically similar languages). After an initial word-learning phase, they were tested in a recognition task. While Spanish monolinguals and Spanish–Catalan bilingual children recognized illegal words worse than legal words, Spanish–Basque bilingual children showed equal performance in learning illegal and legal patterns. In Experiment 2, a replication study was conducted with two new groups of Spanish–Basque children (one group with high Basque proficiency and one group with a lower proficiency) and results indicated that the effects were not driven by the proficiency in the second language, as a similar performance on legal and illegal patterns was observed in both groups. These findings suggest that word learning is not affected by bilingualism as such, but rather depends on the specific language combinations spoken by the bilinguals.

Measuring Word Learning Ability in Sequential Bilingual Children

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pui Fong Kan
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Novel Word Learning ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract The purpose of this article is to look at the word learning skills in sequential bilingual children—children who learn two languages (L1 and L2) at different times in their childhood. Learning a new word is a process of learning a word form and relating this form to a concept. For bilingual children, each concept might need to map onto two word forms (in L1 and in L2). In case studies, I present 3 typically developing Hmong-English bilingual preschoolers' word learning skills in Hmong (L1) and in English (L2) during an 8-week period (4 weeks for each language). The results showed gains in novel-word knowledge in L1 and in L2 when the amount of input is equal for both languages. The individual differences in novel word learning are discussed.

Murder with Impunity: The Construction of Arab Masculinities and Honor Crimes

1970 ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
May Abu Jaber
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
Male Authority ◽  
Cultural Networks ◽  
Gender Specific

Violence against women (VAW) continues to exist as a pervasive, structural,systematic, and institutionalized violation of women’s basic human rights (UNDivision of Advancement for Women, 2006). It cuts across the boundaries of age, race, class, education, and religion which affect women of all ages and all backgrounds in every corner of the world. Such violence is used to control and subjugate women by instilling a sense of insecurity that keeps them “bound to the home, economically exploited and socially suppressed” (Mathu, 2008, p. 65). It is estimated that one out of every five women worldwide will be abused during her lifetime with rates reaching up to 70 percent in some countries (WHO, 2005). Whether this abuse is perpetrated by the state and its agents, by family members, or even by strangers, VAW is closely related to the regulation of sexuality in a gender specific (patriarchal) manner. This regulation is, on the one hand, maintained through the implementation of strict cultural, communal, and religious norms, and on the other hand, through particular legal measures that sustain these norms. Therefore, religious institutions, the media, the family/tribe, cultural networks, and the legal system continually disciplinewomen’s sexuality and punish those women (and in some instances men) who have transgressed or allegedly contravened the social boundaries of ‘appropriateness’ as delineated by each society. Such women/men may include lesbians/gays, women who appear ‘too masculine’ or men who appear ‘too feminine,’ women who try to exercise their rights freely or men who do not assert their rights as ‘real men’ should, women/men who have been sexually assaulted or raped, and women/men who challenge male/older male authority.

Influence of Rim Run-Out on the Nonuniformity of Tire-Wheel Assemblies

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. B. Rhyne ◽  
R. Gall ◽  
L. Y. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Finite Element ◽  
Radial Force ◽  
Membrane Model ◽  
Model Experiments ◽  
Force Variation ◽  
One To One ◽  
The One

Abstract An analytical membrane model is used to study how wheel imperfections are converted into radial force variation of the tire-wheel assembly. This model indicates that the radial run-out of the rim generates run-out of the tire-wheel assembly at slightly less than the one to one ratio that was expected. Lateral run-out of the rim is found to generate radial run-out of the tire-wheel assembly at a ratio that is dependent on the tire design and the wheel width. Finite element studies of a production tire validate and quantify the results of the membrane model. Experiments using a specially constructed precision wheel demonstrate the behavior predicted by the models. Finally, a population of production tires and wheels show that the lateral run-out of the rims contribute a significant portion to the assembly radial force variation. These findings might be used to improve match-mounting results by taking lateral rim run-out into account.

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