The Acquisition of Polysynthetic Verb Forms in Chintang

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Stoll ◽  
Balthasar Bickel ◽  
Jekaterina Mažara
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Complex Part ◽  
Verb Forms

In first language acquisition research so far little is known about the affordances involved in children's acquisition of morphologies of different complexities. This chapter discusses the acquisition of Chintang verbal morphology. Chintang is a Sino-Tibetan (Kiranti) polysynthetic language spoken in a small village in Eastern Nepal by approximately 6,000 speakers. The most complex part of Chintang morphology is verbal inflection. A large number of affixes, verb compounding, and freedom in prefix ordering results in over 1,800 verb forms of single stem verbs and more than 4,000 forms if a secondary stem is involved. In this chapter we assess the challenges of learning such a complex system, and we describe in detail what this acquisition process looks like. For this we analyze a large longitudinal acquisition corpus of Chintang.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE GRONINGEN ASSEMBLY ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.Charlotte Koster and Frank Wijnen (Eds.). Groningen, The Netherlands: Centre for Language and Cognition Groningen, 1996. Pp. 389.

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-520
Author(s):  
Robert Yates
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Lively Discussion ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Language And Cognition

This volume contains 34 papers presented at the Groningen Assembly on Language Acquisition in September 1995. According to the editors, the conference was designed to promote “a lively discussion about the merits and constraints of different approaches to language acquisition.” Not surprisingly, in a conference that explicitly mentions it is continuing in the tradition of GALA 1993, Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition, 23 of the papers in one way or the other deal with the innate properties of language and their status in language acquisition, whereas 7 papers have a connectionist perspective. Only 2 of the connectionist papers provide data from language learners. Two papers describe aspects of first language acquisition without an obvious theoretical allegiance. Only 1 paper considers how children make use of negative input provided in an experimental setting for learning about irregular verb forms. There is not a single paper on how interaction with caregivers influences language acquisition or how language is socially constructed.

Some Constraints on Functionally Disordered Phonologies

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dinnsen ◽  
Steven B. Chin ◽  
Mary Elbert ◽  
Thomas W. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Disordered Systems ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Functional Disorders ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Learning Patterns ◽  
Assessment And Treatment

The phonological systems of 40 functional misarticulators, ages 40 to 80 months were examined in terms of the nature and variation of phonetic inventories and phonotactic constraints. It was found that these properties of disordered systems were governed by severe constraints that yielded a typological characterization of such systems along with associated implicational laws. The principles governing disordered systems were also found to parallel closely the principles governing normal first language acquisition. The evidence suggests that at least these properties of disordered systems represent delays in the normal acquisition process and are not otherwise deviant. The assessment and treatment of functional disorders along with the projection of learning patterns can thus appeal to principles governing such phonological systems.

scholarly journals SOUNDS AND PRONUNCIATION (Children's First Language Acquisition Model in the Pragmatic Process)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
Memmy Dwi Jayanti
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Difference

Abstract: The aim of the study was to determine the stages of the linguistic first language acquisition process which emphasized the aspects of sound and pronunciation in children aged two to four years. Research focuses on phonological analysis of sound and pronunciation in a pragmatic perspective. This type of qualitative research uses a cross sectional approach, namely data collection from the age of two to four years at the same time in order to obtain complete and fast data so that it can describe each individual in the process of acquiring his language. The focus of research is all sounds or sounds that are spoken or produced by the child in a pragmatic view, namely when communicating. Sub focus in research is the sound and pronunciation of children according to the theory of Susan M. Gass and Larry Se, at the initial stage the pronunciation of children is not the same as the pronunciation of adults. Some sounds can be distinguished at first such as: the difference between consonants in [ta] and [da]. Even when children start using words that more or less resemble adult words, at least in a sense, there are different pronunciations, namely deletion of syllables (em..bek→goat), elimination of sound (japah→jerapah→giraffe), and simplification process words (fis→fish). The results showed that there was a relationship between the ability of sound produced by children and pragmatic rules according to their age. In the acquisition of languages and stages of linguistic processes with almost the same age there are also differences between children with each other.

scholarly journals The Unifying Theory of Bootstrapping: The Collaboration of Multiple Language Acquisition Mechanisms

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. p16
Author(s):  
Zequn Harry Song
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Definitive Evidence ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping

Scientists have long been exploring the possibility of Universal Grammar (UG), a linguistic gene that engenders our language acquisition process. What UG may comprise is debated: if semantics is innate, or syntax, or some other linguistic aspects. Moreover, no definitive evidence has surfaced to attest to its existence. Therefore, a first-language acquisition process without the prerequisite of UG is called for. In this paper, we tear apart the incompatibilities among different language acquisition hypotheses and combine them into a theory in which language learning does not require UG. We contend that a unification of the current hypotheses (i.e., pragmatic, prosodic, semantic, and syntactic bootstrapping) is substantial for first-language acquisition, and that scientists should be wary of oversimplifying matters with UG.

Vocabulary Acquisition in First Language: Can This Be Categorized Under Any Universal Developmental Stages?

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-130
Author(s):  
Сікдер Шафіназ
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Study Results

This researched based case study has been conducted to investigate the fact that whether first language acquisition process in case of vocabulary (acquiring word meanings) follows some certain sequential stages despite of specific learners and their particular contexts. That is to say, to challenge the existing idea of having universal developmental patterns in case of vocabulary acquisition which tries to bring all the unique learners under one single umbrella, this study was conducted on an individual to observe whether and to what extent the child is following or conforming up to any idealistic standard of acquiring vocabulary. Therefore the study had some pre-determined questions set which was ask to the randomly selected child within an informal context (her play time). Interestingly, the study results which were analyzed both qualitatively and quantifiably with support of secondary literatures revealed that the child is not following any particular patterns of development at a time.  Rather is developing word meanings by following some random sequences. That is to say, she has developed some features of word meanings which she should have acquired in some later stages (after a particular age) according to the claim of many researchers. On the other hand, she has not yet acquired features which she should have acquired already. Therefore it can be concluded that a child’s first language vocabulary acquisition process (especially acquisition of word meanings) cannot be made generalized under some certain or principled patterns or rules. This is because every learning process is unique since every individual learner is unique. References Cruttenden, Alan. (1985). Language in Infancy and Childhood: A Linguistics Introductionto Language Acquisition. Manchester, Manchester University Press. Dodd, H. David & Tomikawa, A. Sandra (1980). Early Word Meanings: Perceptually orFunctionally Based? Child Development, 51 (4), 1103–1109. Retrieved from:http://www.jstor.org/stable/1129550 Mace-Matluck, J. Betty. (1979). Order of Acquisition: Same or Different in First- andSecond-Language Learning? The Reading Teacher, 32 (6), 696–703. Retrieved from:http://www.jstor.org/stable/20194855. Miller, A. George (1978). The Acquisition of Word Meaning. Child Development, 49 (4),999-1004. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1128739 Ritgerd, B. A. (2014). First Language Acquisition: The Rate and Style of VocabularyGrowth in the First Years. Haskoli Islands, 1–26. Retrieved from:http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/17417/40471/1/BA_Essay.pdf Scovel, Thomas. (2004). Psycholinguistics (5th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford UniversityPress Smith, D. Michael. (1978). The Acquisition of Word Meaning: An Introduction. ChildDevelopment, 49(4), 950–952. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/11287338. You, Yunjung. (2011). Factors in Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading. ITJ, 8, 43–57Retrieved from: http: //15524-21995-1-PB.pdf

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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