scholarly journals The role of Function Words to build syntactic knowledge in French-speaking children

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Thérèse Le Normand ◽  
Hung Thai-Van
Keyword(s):  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
Third Person

AbstractThe question of how children learn Function Words (FWs) is still a matter of debate among child language researchers. Are early multiword utterances based on lexically specific patterns or rather abstract grammatical relations? In this corpus study, we analyzed FWs having a highly predictable distribution in relation to Mean Length Utterance (MLU) an index of syntactic complexity in a large naturalistic sample of 315 monolingual French children aged 2 to 4 year-old. The data was annotated with a Part Of Speech Tagger (POS-T), belonging to computational tools from CHILDES. While eighteen FWs strongly correlated with MLU expressed either in word or in morpheme, stepwise regression analyses showed that subject pronouns predicted MLU. Factor analysis yielded a bifactor hierarchical model: The first factor loaded sixteen FWs among which eight had a strong developmental weight (third person singular verbs, subject pronouns, articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, modals, demonstrative pronouns and plural markers), whereas the second factor loaded complex FWs (possessive verbs and object pronouns). These findings challenge the lexicalist account and support the view that children learn grammatical forms as a complex system based on early instead of late structure building. Children may acquire FWs as combining words and build syntactic knowledge as a complex abstract system which is not innate but learned from multiple word input sentences context. Notably, FWs were found to predict syntactic development and sentence complexity. These results open up new perspectives for clinical assessment and intervention.

scholarly journals A broadened estimate of syntactic and lexical ability from the MB-CDI

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Trevor K.M. DAY ◽  
Jed T. ELISON
Keyword(s):  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Subsequent Investigation ◽  
Factor Analytic ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
Age Related Changes

Abstract A critical question in the study of language development is to understand lexical and syntactic acquisition, which play different roles in speech to the extent it would be natural to surmise they are acquired differently. As measured through the comprehension and production of closed-class words, syntactic ability emerges at roughly the 400-word mark. However, a significant proportion of the developmental work uses a coarse combination of function and content words on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI). Using the MB-CDI Wordbank database, we implemented a factor analytic approach to distinguish between lexical and syntactic development from the Words and Sentences (WS) form that involves both function words and the explicit categorizations. Although the Words and Gestures (WG) form did not share the factor structure, common WG/WS elements recapitulate the expected age-related changes. This parsing of the MB-CDI may prove simple, yet fruitful in subsequent investigation.

scholarly journals Phonological Words and Stuttering on Function Words

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1019-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Au-Yeung ◽  
Peter Howell ◽  
Lesley Pilgrim
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
The People

Stuttering on function words was examined in 51 people who stutter. The people who stutter were subdivided into young (2 to 6 years), middle (6 to 9 years), and older (9 to 12 years) child groups; teenagers (13 to 18 years); and adults (20 to 40 years). As reported by previous researchers, children up to about age 9 stuttered more on function words (pronouns, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs), whereas older people tended to stutter more on content words (nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives). Function words in early positions in utterances, again as reported elsewhere, were more likely to be stuttered than function words at later positions in an utterance. This was most apparent for the younger groups of speakers. For the remaining analyses, utterances were segmented into phonological words on the basis of Selkirk’s work (1984). Stuttering rate was higher when function words occurred in early phonological word positions than other phonological word positions whether the phonological word appeared in initial position in an utterance or not. Stuttering rate was highly dependent on whether the function word occurred before or after the single content word allowed in Selkirk’s (1984) phonological words. This applied, once again, whether the phonological word was utterance-initial or not. It is argued that stuttering of function words before their content word in phonological words in young speakers is used as a delaying tactic when the forthcoming content word is not prepared for articulation.

scholarly journals Optimality Analysis of Vowel Harmony in ÀÍKA

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ibikunle Abiodun Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Morphological Effect ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Pronouns

This paper gives an Optimality Theory (Henceforth OT) account of advanced tongue root (ATR) vowel harmony in ÀÍKAan Edoid language that consists of four speech forms spoken in Akoko-Edo area in Nigeria. The ATR harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. The ATR harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for ATR value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. It is further noted that ATR has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. In addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (Abiodun 1999, Ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value. More importantly, this analysis shows that OT is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the Non-Linear or traditional generative account on Vowel Harmony system of the language.  

scholarly journals An Algorithm for Anaphora Resolution in Spanish Texts

2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Palomar ◽  
Antonio Ferrández ◽  
Lidia Moreno ◽  
Patricio Martínez-Barco ◽  
Jesús Peral ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Anaphora Resolution ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Partial Parsing ◽  
Test Corpus ◽  
Reflexive Pronouns ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Competitive Algorithms

This paper presents an algorithm for identifying noun phrase antecedents of third person personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and omitted pronouns (zero pronouns) in unrestricted Spanish texts. We define a list of constraints and preferences for different types of pronominal expressions, and we document in detail the importance of each kind of knowledge (lexical, morphological, syntactic, and statistical) in anaphora resolution for Spanish. The paper also provides a definition for syntactic conditions on Spanish NP-pronoun noncoreference using partial parsing. The algorithm has been evaluated on a corpus of 1,677 pronouns and achieved a success rate of 76.8%. We have also implemented four competitive algorithms and tested their performance in a blind evaluation on the same test corpus. This new approach could easily be extended to other languages such as English, Portuguese, Italian, or Japanese.

scholarly journals Grammatical construction of function words between old and modern written Arabic: A corpus-based analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-296
Author(s):  
Sultan Almujaiwel
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Grammatical Construction ◽  
Modern Arabic ◽  
Classical Arabic ◽  
Modern Standard

AbstractThis paper argues that Arabic function words (FWs) vary in usage between old and modern Arabic, thus prompting an experimental investigation into their changeability. This investigation is carried out by testing classical Arabic (CA) in Arabic heritage language (AHL) texts – those labeled as archistratum – and the modern standard Arabic (MSA) of Arabic newspaper texts (ANT), each group of which contains randomly collected 5 million (M) word texts. The linguistic theory of the grammar of Arabic FWs is explained through the differences between CA and MSA, despite Arabic FW changes and the unlearnability and/or unusability of some FW constructions between in these two eras of Arabic usage. The dispersion/distribution of the construction grammar (CxG) of FWs and the number (n) of word attractions/repulsions between the two distinct eras is explored using the very latest and most sophisticated Arabic corpus processing tools, and Sketch Engine’sSkeEn gramrelsoperators. The analysis of a 5 M word corpus from each era of Arabic serves to prove the non-existence of rigorous Arabic CxG. The approach in this study adopts a technique which, by contrasting AHL with ANT, relies on analyzing the frequency distributions of FWs, the co-occurrences of FWs in a span of 2n-grams collocational patterning, and some cases of FW usage changes in terms of lexical cognition (FW grammatical relationships). The results show that the frequencies of FWs, in addition to the case studies, are not the same, and this implies that FWs and their associations with the main part of speech class in a fusion language like Arabic have grammatically changed in MSA. Their constructional changes are neglected in Arabic grammar.

Personal pronouns and perspective taking in toddlers

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCELLE RICARD ◽  
PASCALE C. GIROUARD ◽  
THÉRÈSE GOUIN DÉCARIE
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Visual Perspective ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Strict Criterion ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Third Person ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Level 1

This study examined the evolution of visual perspective-taking skills in relation to the comprehension and production of first, second and third person pronouns. Twelve French-speaking and 12 English-speaking children were observed longitudinally from 1;6 until they had acquired all pronouns and succeeded on all tasks. Free-play sessions and three tasks were used to test pronominal competence. Four other tasks assessed Level-1 perspective-taking skills: two of these tasks required the capacity to consider two visual perspectives, and two others tested the capacity to coordinate three such perspectives. The results indicated that children's performance on perspective-taking tasks was correlated with full pronoun acquisition. Moreover, competence at coordinating two visual perspectives preceded the full mastery of first and second person pronouns, and competence at coordinating three perspectives preceded the full mastery of third person pronouns when a strict criterion was adopted. However, with less stringent criteria, the sequence from perspective taking to pronoun acquisition varied either slightly or considerably. These findings are discussed in the light of the ‘specificity hypothesis’ concerning the links between cognition and language, and also in the context of the recent body of research on the child's developing theory of mind.

Third-person singular zero in the Norfolk dialect A re-assessment

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Joby
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Present Tense

AbstractI use the results of my own research into the language use of the immigrant (or ‘Stranger’) communities in early modern Norwich to evaluate Peter Trudgill’s thesis that it was language contact in Norwich between the Strangers and the local English inhabitants that led to the emergence of third-person singular present tense zero (he go rather than he goes). I present evidence that third-person singular zero was already in use in Norwich and elsewhere in Norfolk by the time when Dutch- and French-speaking immigrants arrived in Norwich. The question then arises as to whether language contact did in fact play any role in establishing zero-marking as the norm in the Norfolk dialect, a process which was complete by about 1700. I argue is that if language contact did play a role in the success of zeromarking, it would have been in a manner different to that described by Trudgill.

Dialogical factors in toddlers’ use of clitic pronouns

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 375-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Salazar Orvig ◽  
Haydée Marcos ◽  
Aliyah Morgenstern ◽  
Rouba Hassan ◽  
Jocelyne Leber-Marin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Referential Expressions

Young (1;9—2;4) children’s use of third person clitic subject pronouns in natural dialogues was examined in both longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Considering that young children mainly use pronouns in the context of referential continuity, this study aims at identifying some of the factors that affect this use. Two possible dialogical factors are examined: (1) the use of clitic pronouns can be interpreted as a reproduction of the adult’s discourse, either by taking up whole utterances containing a pronoun or by taking up only the clitic pronouns without reproducing the adult’s utterance. (2) The use of pronouns could be driven by pragmatic-discursive factors. In order to assess this hypothesis the use of clitic pronouns was observed in the context of dialogical continuity. Three kinds of links were considered: children repeat or reformulate the adult’s utterances, add a new predication on the same topic, or establish a contrast. The results suggest that the reproduction of the adult’s utterance does not significantly influence children’s use of pronouns, whereas pragmatic-discursive factors are found to affect their choice of referential expressions.

scholarly journals Language mixing in young bilinguals

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy E. Redlinger ◽  
Tschang-Zin Park
Keyword(s):  
System Theory ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Language Differentiation ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The One

ABSTRACTThe speech of four two-year-old children growing up bilingually in a German-speaking community was studied for periods varying between five and nine months. An analysis of their language mixing revealed an initially higher rate of mixing which diminished with a growth in language development as measured in MLU. The data suggest that the children were at various stages in a gradual process of language differentiation thus providing support for the one-system theory of bilingual acquisition. An examination of the distribution of lexical substitutions by part of speech revealed that nouns were most frequently substituted by all children; however, more function words were substituted than content words overall.

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