scholarly journals Some puzzling findings regarding the acquisition of verbs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua K. Hartshorne ◽  
Yujing Huang ◽  
Lauren Skorb
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Causal Agent ◽  
Input Frequency ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Type Frequency ◽  
Noun Bias

On the whole, children acquire frequent words earlier than less frequent words. However, there are other factors at play, such as an early "noun bias" (relative to input frequency, toddlers learn nouns faster than verbs) and a "content-word bias" (content words are acquired disproportionately to function words). This paper follows up reports of a puzzling phenomenon within verb-learning, where "experiencer-object" emotion verbs (A frightened/angered/delighted B) are lower frequency but learned earlier than "experiencer-subject" emotion verbs (A feared/hated/loved B). In addition to the possibility that the aforementioned results are a fluke or due to some confound, prior work has suggested several possible explanations: experiencer-object ("frighten-type") verbs have higher type frequency, encode a causal agent as the sentential subject, and perhaps describe a more salient perspective on the described event. In three experiments, we cast doubt on all three possible explanations. The first experiment replicates and extends the prior findings regarding emotion verbs, ruling out several possible confounds and concerns. The second and third experiments investigate acquisition of chase/flee verbs and give/get verbs, which reveal surprising findings that are not explained by the aforementioned hypotheses. We conclude that these findings indicate a significant hole in our theories of language learning, and that the path forward likely requires a great deal more empirical investigation of the order of acquisition of verbs.

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.

Comprehensie van Vreemdtalige Input

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Diana C. Issidorides
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Word Order ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Processing Strategies

Within a psycholinguistic approach to second language learning, an attempt is made to investigate the question of how morphology, syntax (word order phenomena), semantics and pragmatics affect the comprehension of Dutch sentences for normative learners of that language. When talking to nonnative language-learners, native spea-kers often tend to dehberately modify their speech -'simplify' it - in an attempt to make the target language more comprehensible. Omitting semantically redundant function words and copulas, or deliberate-ly modifying the word order in a sentence, are but a few characteris-tics of sucn 'simplifications'. In trying to determine whether, and what kinds of, linguistic simplifications promote comprehension, an important theoretical issue arises, namely, the relationship between linguistic (structural) and cognitive (ease of information processing) simplification. That one form of simplification is by no means a guarantee for the other form is an important assumption that forms the backbone to our approach. The results from research on morphological simplifications (omission of redundant function words in utterances) in two parallel experiments - an artificial and a natural language one (Dutch) - are discus-sed. They suggest that the presence of semantically redundant functi-on words is not experienced as bothersome "noise" in the successful inference of the meaning of unfamiliar utterances, as long as supra-segmental cues are present. The suprasegmental structure provides the listener/learner with cues for locating the potentially meaningful elements of such utterances. Research on syntactic simplifications is also discussed. Its aim was to examine the role and effect of syntactic and semantic cues on sen-tence interpretation. Two important questions were: (a) What are the processing strategies and cues responsible for the interpretation of Dutch sentences by native speakers, and how do they compare to those employed by nonnative speakers? (b) Are the processing stra-tegies and cues that are responsible and decisive for first language comprehension also those employed in second language comprehension? The performance of Dutch control subjects on a Dutch sentence interpretation task is presented, and hypotheses are put forward as to the locus and cause of eventual performance differences in a nonnative subject population (English learners of Dutch). Some relevant theoretical implications of our findings are also mentioned.

scholarly journals An Empirical Study to Determine Whether ADHD Disorder Affects the Process of Language Learning

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Adhd Group ◽  
Adult Language Learners ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Foreign Language Courses

In previous studies, it seems that the classification of ADHD did not appear to interfere with learners’ performance in foreign language courses. In this empirical investigation, a group of 43 adult language learners diagnosed with ADHD were asked questions relating to their language learning process, in particular to the difficulties encountered when partaking language courses, as well as subjective opinions as to progress and success relating to the language learning and also what the participants felt could have assisted the learning to make it more effective, efficient and successful. A control group of 43 adult language learners who had not been diagnosed with ADHD were asked the same questions. The findings indicated some significant negativity from the ADHD group with regards to their progress and success with the language learning, as well as an extremely significant statistical difference between the ADHD group and the control group in relation to the difficulty concerning attention while learning. This finding concludes that in fact, language learners diagnosed with ADHD report their difficulty with attention and this would corroborate the attention deficit symptom inherent to this neurobehavioral disorder.

scholarly journals What reading aloud reveals about speaking: Regressive saccades implicate a failure to monitor, not inattention, in the prevalence of intrusion errors on function words

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 2032-2045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R Schotter ◽  
Chuchu Li ◽  
Tamar H Gollan
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Versus Content ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Automatic Retrieval ◽  
Intrusion Errors ◽  
Word Skipping

Bilinguals occasionally produce language intrusion errors (inadvertent translations of the intended word), especially when attempting to produce function word targets, and often when reading aloud mixed-language paragraphs. We investigate whether these errors are due to a failure of attention during speech planning, or failure of monitoring speech output by classifying errors based on whether and when they were corrected, and investigating eye movement behaviour surrounding them. Prior research on this topic has primarily tested alphabetic languages (e.g., Spanish–English bilinguals) in which part of speech is confounded with word length, which is related to word skipping (i.e., decreased attention). Therefore, we tested 29 Chinese–English bilinguals whose languages differ in orthography, visually cueing language membership, and for whom part of speech (in Chinese) is less confounded with word length. Despite the strong orthographic cue, Chinese–English bilinguals produced intrusion errors with similar effects as previously reported (e.g., especially with function word targets written in the dominant language). Gaze durations did differ by whether errors were made and corrected or not, but these patterns were similar for function and content words and therefore cannot explain part of speech effects. However, bilinguals regressed to words produced as errors more often than to correctly produced words, but regressions facilitated correction of errors only for content, not for function words. These data suggest that the vulnerability of function words to language intrusion errors primarily reflects automatic retrieval and failures of speech monitoring mechanisms from stopping function versus content word errors after they are planned for production.

Early lexical development in German: a study on vocabulary growth and vocabulary composition during the second and third year of life

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA KAUSCHKE ◽  
CHRISTOPH HOFMEISTER
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
Noun Bias ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Vocabulary Spurt

This paper focuses on aspects of early lexical acquisition in German. There have been conflicting results in the literature concerning both the pattern of vocabulary growth and the composition of the early lexicon. Our study describes the development of various categories of words and questions the preponderance of nouns in spontaneous speech. 32 children were studied longitudinally through recordings made at age 1;1, 1;3, 1;9 and 3;0. The following properties of the data were investigated: vocabulary size in relation to age, frequency of word use, and distribution of word categories. The results show that use of both types and tokens increases with time. A trend analysis indicates an exponential increase in vocabulary production in the second year, followed by a further expansion. This vocabulary spurt-like pattern can be observed in the use of word types and tokens. The findings in regard to vocabulary composition illustrate the dynamics present in the development of word categories. In the beginning, children use mostly relational words, personal-social words and some onomatopoeic terms. These categories are gradually complemented with nouns, verbs, function words and other words so that we see a balanced lexicon by 3;0. Trend analyses clarify characteristic developmental patterns in regard to certain word categories. Our spontaneous speech data does not support a strong noun-bias hypothesis.

Parameters in L2 learning: Flynn revisited

1989 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Eubank
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
High Degree

In a series of studies, Suzanne Flynn (1984; 1987a; 1987b) has proposed a specific theory with regard to Universal Grammar (Chomsky, 1986) and second language learning. The present study, a replication of the methodology and hypotheses in Flynn (1987b), utilizes Arabic-speaking learners of ESL, who are predicted by Flynn's theory to perform much like her Spanish-speaking subjects. Present findings, however, contradict those of Flynn's work and, thus, cast doubt on her theory of Universal Grammar and L2 learning. Closer examination then reveals that the linguistic underpinnings of Flynn's theory in Huang (1982) have been superseded by the more recent analysis of Koopman (1984), which does not support Flynn's theory. Furthermore, certain assumptions on processing main and subordinate clauses (Townsend and Bever, 1978) and sentence anaphora (Carden, 1986; Reinhart, 1986), which have the capacity to predict Flynn's findings, also fail satisfactorily to predict the results from the speakers of Arabic. Finally, an analysis that predicts a failure of parsing under certain conditions is presented and found to predict the present findings with a high degree of accuracy. However, the parsing analysis must be subjected to further study with an aim toward falsification before it can be assumed to be conclusive.

Phonological Pairing as a Reading Aid for Retarded Children

1975 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Booker Miller
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Mentally Retarded ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Serial List ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Mentally Retarded Children ◽  
Educable Mentally Retarded ◽  
And Function

Thirty-three educable mentally retarded children were exposed to one of three modes of word presentation: phonologically paired words in the content-function order; phonologically paired words in the function-content order; serial list with words randomly assigned. The results of the investigation indicated that the demonstrated learning performance of mentally retarded children was significantly enhanced by the phonological pairing of words, phonological pairing in the content-function word order being superior to phonological pairing in the function-content word order. It was concluded that the incorporation of new words into the educable mentally retarded child's reading vocabulary can be enhanced by the phonological pairing of content and function words.

Towards a Full Model of Second Language Learning: An Empirical Investigation

1997 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. GARDNER ◽  
PAUL F. TREMBLAY ◽  
ANNE-MARIE MASGORET
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Full Model

L2 acquisition in childhood, adulthood and old age

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Singleton ◽  
Simone E. Pfenninger
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Age Factor ◽  
Research Findings

Abstract This article deals with some misunderstandings about the age factor in second language acquisition which result from a reliance on an incomplete interpretation of relevant research findings. It begins with an exploration of the work of Penfield and Lenneberg and goes on to weigh recent evidence for and against the hypothesis of a “critical period” in the context of naturalistic second language acquisition. It then turns to the question of the effects of early instructed second language learning. Finally, it addresses the issue of second language learning in late adulthood, summarizing the results of such empirical investigation as has been undertaken to date on this topic and arguing for more attention to be devoted to this area in the future.

scholarly journals Exchange of Disfluency With Age From Function Words to Content Words in Spanish Speakers Who Stutter

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 754-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Au-Yeung ◽  
Isabel Vallejo Gomez ◽  
Peter Howell
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Change ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Content Word ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Function Word ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Group 5 ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Optional Function

The main purpose of the present study was to examine whether the developmental change in loci of disfluency from mainly function words to mainly content words, observed for English speakers who stutter (P. Howell, J. Au-Yeung, & S. Sackin, 1999), also occurs for comparable Spanish speakers who stutter. The participants were divided into 5 age groups. There were 7 participants in Group 1, from 3 to 5 years old; 11 in Group 2, from 6 to 9 years old; 10 in Group 3, from 10 to 11 years old; 9 in Group 4, from 12 to 16 years old; and 9 in Group 5, from 20 to 68 years old. Across all groups, 36 of the 46 participants were male. The study method involved segmenting speech into phonological words (PWs) that consist of an obligatory content word with optional function words that precede and follow it. The initial function words in the PWs were examined to establish whether they have a higher disfluency rate than the final ones (J. Au-Yeung, P. Howell, & L. Pilgrim, 1998). Disfluency on function words in a PW was higher when the word occurred before a content word rather than after a content word for all age groups. Disfluencies on function and content words were then examined to determine whether they change over age groups in the same way as for English speakers who stutter (Howell et al., 1999). The rate of disfluency on function words was higher than that on content words, particularly in the youngest speakers. Function word disfluency rate dropped off and content word disfluency rate increased across age groups. These patterns are similar to those reported for English. Possible explanations for these similarities across the two languages are discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document