scholarly journals A communicative approach to early word learning

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Yurovsky
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Natural Unit ◽  
Statistical Structure ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Computational Problem ◽  
Level Problem ◽  
Communicative Signals ◽  
Computational Level

Young children learn the meanings of thousands of words by the time they can run down the street. Many efforts to explain this rapid development generally begin by assuming that the computational-level problem being solved is acquisition. Consequently, work in this line has sought to understand how children infer the meanings of words from cues in the communicative signals of the speakers around them. I will argue, however, that this formulation of the problem is backwards: the computational problem is communication, and language acquisition provides cues about how to communicate successfully. Under this framing, the natural unit of analysis is not the child, but the parent-child dyad. A necessary consequence of this shift is the realization that the statistical structure of the input to the child is itself dependent on the child. This dependency radically simplifies the computational problem of learning and using language.

Differentiating scalar implicature from exclusion inferences in language acquisition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jess Sullivan ◽  
Kathryn Davidson ◽  
Shirlene Wade ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Logical Semantics

When acquiring language, children must not only learn the meanings of words, but also how to interpret them in context. For example, children must learn both the logical semantics of the scalar quantifier some and its pragmatically enriched meaning: ‘some but not all’. Some studies have shown that this “scalar implicature” that some implies ‘some but not all’ poses a challenge even to nine-year-olds, while others find success by age three. We asked whether reports of children’s early successes might be due to the computation of exclusion inferences (like contrast or mutual exclusivity) rather than an ability to compute scalar implicatures. We found that young children (N=214; ages 4;0-7;11) sometimes prefer to compute symmetrical exclusion inferences rather than asymmetric scalar inferences when interpreting quantifiers. This suggests that some apparent successes in computing scalar implicature can actually be explained by less sophisticated exclusion inferences.

Stepping backwards in development: integrating developmental speech perception with lexical and phonological development – a commentary on Stoel-Gammon's ‘Relationships between lexical and phonological development in young children’*

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANIA S. ZAMUNER
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Traditional Approaches

Within the subfields of linguistics, traditional approaches tend to examine different phenomena in isolation. As Stoel-Gammon (this issue) correctly states, there is little interaction between the subfields. However, for a more comprehensive understanding of language acquisition in general and, more specifically, lexical and phonological development, we must consider relations between multiple subfields. That is, by examining the interactions between these subfields, a greater understanding of lexical and phonological development can emerge. For instance, the interaction between phonology, syntax and semantics is demonstrated in recent work looking at how phonological patterns can provide a basis for inferring a word's lexical category (such as nouns and verbs) (Christiansen, Onnis & Hockema, 2009; Lany & Saffran, 2010).

scholarly journals Doubling down on serendipity

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Snow
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Doctoral Student ◽  
To Come ◽  
Minority View ◽  
The Relationship

The lessons I have learned over the last many years seem always to come in pairs – a lesson about the findings that brings with it a lesson about life as a researcher...Lesson 1. Even as a doctoral student, I believed that the sorts of social interactions young children had with adults supported language acquisition. In 1971, when I completed my dissertation, that was a minority view, and one ridiculed by many. I was, unfortunately, deflected from a full-on commitment to research on the relationship between social environment and language development for many years by the general atmosphere of disdain for such claims. In the intervening years, of course, evidence to support the claim has accumulated, and now it is generally acknowledged that a large part of the variance among children in language skills can be explained by their language environments. This consensus might have been achieved earlier had I and others been braver about pursuing it.[Download the PDF and read more...]

scholarly journals Understanding the effects of language revitalization workshops using long-format speech environment recordings

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Julia Nee
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Teaching Language ◽  
Methodological Challenges

Long-format speech environment (LFSE) recordings are increasingly used to understand language acquisition among young children (Casillas & Cristia 2019). But in language revitalization, older children are sometimes the largest demographic acquiring a language. In Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico, older children have participated in Zapotec language revitalization workshops since 2017. To better understand how these children use language, and to probe whether the language workshops impact language use, I invited learners to collect LFSE recordings. This study addresses two main questions: (1) what methodological challenges emerge when children ages 6-12 collect LFSE data?; and (2) what do the data suggest about the effects of the Zapotec workshops? I argue that, while creating LFSE recordings with older children presents methodological challenges, the results are useful in highlighting the importance of not only teaching language skills, but of creating spaces where learners are comfortable using the Zapotec language.

Differentiating scalar implicature from exclusion inferences in language acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 733-759
Author(s):  
Jessica SULLIVAN ◽  
Kathryn DAVIDSON ◽  
Shirlene WADE ◽  
David BARNER
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Logical Semantics

AbstractDuring acquisition, children must learn both the meanings of words and how to interpret them in context. For example, children must learn the logical semantics of the scalar quantifier some and its pragmatically enriched meaning: ‘some but not all’. Some studies have shown that ‘scalar implicature’ – that some implies ‘some but not all’ – poses a challenge even to nine-year-olds, while others find success by age three. We asked whether reports of children's successes might be due to the computation of exclusion inferences (like contrast or mutual exclusivity) rather than scalar implicatures. We found that young children (N = 214; ages 4;0–7;11) sometimes compute symmetrical exclusion inferences rather than asymmetric scalar inferences. These data suggest that a stronger burden of evidence is required in studies of implicature; before concluding that children compute implicatures, researchers should first show that children exhibit sensitivity to asymmetric entailment in the task.

scholarly journals The company that words keep: comparing the statistical structure of child- versus adult-directed language

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 586-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS HILLS
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Statistical Structure ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Contextual Diversity ◽  
Associative Structure ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Language Statistics ◽  
And Function

ABSTRACTDoes child-directed language differ from adult-directed language in ways that might facilitate word learning? Associative structure (the probability that a word appears with its free associates), contextual diversity, word repetitions and frequency were compared longitudinally across six language corpora, with four corpora of language directed at children aged 1 ; 0 to 5 ; 0, and two adult-directed corpora representing spoken and written language. Statistics were adjusted relative to shuffled corpora. Child-directed language was found to be more associative, repetitive and consistent than adult-directed language. Moreover, these statistical properties of child-directed language better predicted word acquisition than the same statistics in adult-directed language. Word frequency and repetitions were the best predictors within word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives and function words). For all word classes combined, associative structure, contextual diversity and word repetitions best predicted language acquisition. These results support the hypothesis that child-directed language is structured in ways that facilitate language acquisition.

Syntactic Complexity, Fluency, and Accuracy of Sentence Imitation in Adolescents

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy W. Silverman ◽  
Nan Bernstein Ratner
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Complexity Results ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Sentence Imitation

The majority of work that suggests a relationship between syntactic complexity and the frequency of stuttering has been carried out with young children. In this paper, we investigate whether or not syntactic complexity exerts an influence on the frequency of stuttering in adolescent speech. Fourteen adolescents, 7 of whom stuttered, and 7 of whom were normally fluent, ages 10–18 years, participated in a sentence imitation task in which stimuli were divided into three classes of grammatical complexity. Results indicated that for both groups of speakers, normal disfluencies and errors in repetition accuracy increased as syntactic complexity increased. However, stuttering frequency did not appear to be affected by changes in the syntactic complexity of the target stimuli. Such findings suggest either a diminution of the effects of syntactic complexity on stuttering over the course of language acquisition or changes in the mix of chronic and nonchronic stuttering speakers from those used in earlier studies of the effects of linguistic structure on stuttering in children.

How Do You Say Twos in Spanish, If Two Is Dos? Language as Means and Object in a Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom

2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Mulvihill
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
Kindergarten Classroom

In this essay Naomi Mulvihill uses vignettes from her bilingual kindergarten classroom to explore the dynamic processes by which young children make sense of language, focusing on instances in which she asks her students to compare texts presented in English and Spanish. Using Piaget's concept of disequilibrium as a guiding framework, Mulvihill details the questions children ask and the ideas they ponder when faced with unexpected language puzzles. By privileging her students’ voices, she illustrates the tensions, confusions, and insights children experience as they navigate the complexity of language acquisition and literacy instruction in two languages. She suggests that it is through the exploration of these tensions that her students—and all learners—come to new understandings about language and the world around them.

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