scholarly journals Roll-Up is too complex for Romanian 5-year-olds: Evidence from recursive adjectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Adina Camelia Bleotu ◽  
Tom Roeper
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Complex Operation ◽  
Recursive Structures

The current paper examines Romanian 5-year-olds’ comprehension and production of recursive structures involving multiple adjectives such as florile mici mari ‘flowers-the small big’, i.e., “the big small flowers”. On the basis of an experiment we conducted on 20 Romanian 5-year-olds, we show that children have the tendency to reduce recursion to coordination, the default interpretation at this stage of language acquisition. Moreover, children avoid producing recursive structures, preferring simpler forms instead, while they produce coordinative structures to a much higher extent. Since children’s performance with recursive adjectives in Romanian seems to be worse than performance with recursive prepositional phrases (Bleotu 2020), we argue that this supports the idea that, unlike prepositional phrases, multiple adjectives in Romance are derived through the complex operation of Roll-Up (Cinque 1994, 2005, 2010).

The influence of discourse context on children's provision of auxiliary BE

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA L. THEAKSTON ◽  
ELENA V. M. LIEVEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Prior Use ◽  
Single Child ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Children's Speech

ABSTRACTChildren pass through a stage in development when they produce utterances that contain auxiliary BE (he's playing) and utterances where auxiliary BE is omitted (he playing). One explanation that has been put forward to explain this phenomenon is the presence of questions in the input that model S-V word order (Theakston, Lieven & Tomasello, 2003). The current paper reports two studies that investigate the role of the input in children's use and non-use of auxiliary BE in declaratives. In Study 1, 96 children aged from 2 ; 5 to 2 ; 10 were exposed to known and novel verbs modelled in questions only or declaratives only. In Study 2, naturalistic data from a dense database from a single child between the ages of 2 ; 8 to 3 ; 2 were examined to investigate the influence of (1) declaratives and questions in the input in prior discourse, and (2) the child's immediately previous use of declaratives where auxiliary BE was produced or omitted, on his subsequent use or non-use of auxiliary BE. The results show that in both the experimental and naturalistic contexts, the presence of questions in the input resulted in lower levels of auxiliary provision in the children's speech than in utterances following declaratives in the input. In addition, the children's prior use or non-use of auxiliary BE influenced subsequent use. The findings are discussed in the context of usage-based theories of language acquisition and the role of the language children hear in their developing linguistic representations.

Relationships between parental input frequencies and children's language acquisition: a reanalysis of Brown's data

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst L. Moerk
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Significant Variable ◽  
Input Frequency ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Parent Child Interactions ◽  
Parental Input ◽  
Short Term Effects ◽  
Parent Child

ABSTRACTTo evaluate Brown's assertion that frequency of input is not a significant variable in language acquisition, some of Brown's data were reanalysed. The data pertaining to Adam, Eve, Sarah and their parents were predominantly obtained from Brown's (1973) book and were supplemented from the transcripts. Parental input frequency and the children's age at mastery were highly related for each of the three triads. Then Sarah's input and rate of language acquisition were compared with that of the other two children. The correlation between Sarah's relative input deprivation and her relative linguistic delay was 0·66. Finally, an analysis of Eve's acquisition of specific prepositional phrases involving the preposition in were made. Again it was found that frequency of input was highly related to frequency of production. Detailed analyses of parent-child interactions provided evidence also for short-term effects of input frequency.

Der Zweitspracherwerb des deutschen Kasus in der Präpositionalphrase

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Turgay
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Primary School ◽  
School Children ◽  
First Language ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Special Case

AbstractCase is one of the grammatical categories that pose great challenges to children acquiring German, both in first and second language acquisition. The paper examines the special case of the second language acquisition of case within prepositional phrases (PPs). A prototypical German PP consists of a preposition selecting a determiner phrase (DP) whose case is governed by the prepositional head. One problem is that the case assigned by a preposition and its semantics are not related to each other, while in the case of socalled two-way prepositions, the semantics of the PP and the case within the DP are closely connected. This conflict between arbitrariness and semantically driven case assignment could pose an additional obstacle for learners of German. I have conducted an experiment in which I examined how case within PPs is acquired by 56 primary school children whose first language is not German. My study shows that the children have great difficulties regarding the dative and that the accusative is used instead very often. This overgeneralization decreases with an increase in age.

scholarly journals On the Verbalization of Space and Direction Concepts

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15
Author(s):  
Michail L. Kotin
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Special Consideration ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Irregular Verbs

SummaryThe paper deals with selected problems of the verbalization of the concepts “place”, “space” and “direction”, with a special consideration of their successive development in language and in language acquisition. The theoretical background are assumptions concerning the genesis of the concept of place and movement. Some of them claim that movement and direction precede the conceptualization of place and space. However, numerous linguistic phenomena seem to prove the opposite hypothesis, namely that the concept of place and, thus, its verbalization by means of stative verbs, local adverbs and prepositional phrases is original, whereas the concepts of movement, especially of controlled, caused movement denoted by transitive, regular verbs is derived from the concept of locum encoded by irregular verbs.

The bottleneck may be the solution, not the problem

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnon Lotem ◽  
Oren Kolodny ◽  
Joseph Y. Halpern ◽  
Luca Onnis ◽  
Shimon Edelman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Biological Trait ◽  
Memory Bottleneck

AbstractAs a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressures. It must therefore co-evolve with other cognitive mechanisms rather than act as an independent constraint. Recent theory and an implemented model of language acquisition suggest that a limit on working memory may evolve to help learning. Furthermore, it need not hamper the use of language for communication.

Assessing the Link Between Perception and Production in Cantonese Tone Acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1243-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Pik Ki Mok ◽  
Holly Sze Ho Fung ◽  
Vivian Guo Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Tone Pair ◽  
Tone Production ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Early Production ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Production Accuracy

Purpose Previous studies showed early production precedes late perception in Cantonese tone acquisition, contrary to the general principle that perception precedes production in child language. How tone production and perception are linked in 1st language acquisition remains largely unknown. Our study revisited the acquisition of tone in Cantonese-speaking children, exploring the possible link between production and perception in 1st language acquisition. Method One hundred eleven Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;0 and 6;0 (years;months) and 10 adolescent reference speakers participated in tone production and perception experiments. Production materials with 30 monosyllabic words were transcribed in filtered and unfiltered conditions by 2 native judges. Perception accuracy was based on a 2-alternative forced-choice task with pictures covering all possible tone pair contrasts. Results Children's accuracy of production and perception of all the 6 Cantonese tones was still not adultlike by age 6;0. Both production and perception accuracies matured with age. A weak positive link was found between the 2 accuracies. Mother's native language contributed to children's production accuracy. Conclusions Our findings show that production and perception abilities are associated in tone acquisition. Further study is needed to explore factors affecting production accuracy in children. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7960826

Rule Invention in the Acquisition of Morphology Revisited

1988 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Camarata ◽  
Lisa Erwin
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Impaired Child ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Intensity Parameters ◽  
Suprasegmental Features ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
Suprasegmental Cues

This paper presents a case study of a language-impaired child who signaled the distinction between English singular and plural using suprasegmental cues rather than the usual segmental form used within the parent language. Acoustic analyses performed within the first study in the paper revealed that the suprasegmental features used to maintain this distinction included various duration, fundamental frequency, and intensity parameters. Acoustic analyses Were also performed on a set of matched two- and four-item plural forms within a second study. The results of these analyses indicated that the same acoustic parameters were used to distinguish two-item plural forms from four-item plural forms. This case of linguistic creativity is offered as further evidence in support of the model of language acquisition that emphasizes the active role children take in the acquisition process. Additionally, the phonological, morphological, and psycholinguistic factors that may contribute to such rule invention are discussed.

Zero Marking of Past Tense in Child African American English

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Lee ◽  
Janna B. Oetting
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Grammatical Function

Zero marking of the simple past is often listed as a common feature of child African American English (AAE). In the current paper, we review the literature and present new data to help clinicians better understand zero marking of the simple past in child AAE. Specifically, we provide information to support the following statements: (a) By six years of age, the simple past is infrequently zero marked by typically developing AAE-speaking children; (b) There are important differences between the simple past and participle morphemes that affect AAE-speaking children's marking options; and (c) In addition to a verb's grammatical function, its phonetic properties help determine whether an AAE-speaking child will produce a zero marked form.

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