Language Acquisition - 476
Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem
First Words
Early phrases – multi word utterances
Reading: Deprez, V. and A Pierce. 1994. Crosslinguistic Evidence for Functional Projections in Early Child Grammar. In Hokstra & Schwartz (eds.), p. 57-84.
Different two-word utterances used by Christine Howe's daughter Victoria, aged 1;9, in course of one hour! [Listed in alphabetical order, not in order of use]
From: Crystal, David. 1976. Listen to Your Child, Penguin, pp. 76-77.
Ady horse / hat off / my hatbaby bed / hat on / my teddy
baby cry / her coat / my tractor
baby doll / here is / she cold
baby drink / horsie mummy / she hair
baby hat / in there / shut door
baby here / is here / silly hat
baby lie / it gone / that bath
baby like / it off / that car
baby mummy / kiss doll / that hat
Bluey here-y'are / look elephant / that horsie
Bluey where / milk gone / there Bluey
comb hair / more toy / there teddy
come out / mumma back / toy gone
daddy there / mumma drink / waking up
dolly there / mummy off / want on
drink dolly / mummy there / where Bluey
gone milk / mummy toy / where inside
got it / my apple / where there
hat mummy / my bed / you bed
Pivot Grammar (Braine, 1963; Brown & Fraser, 1964) – Pivot word + Open word, Open word + Pivot word, Open word + Open word, *Pivot word +Pivot word
How are semantic relation encoded?
How is it related to adult grammar?
Multi-word utterances of one Israeli boy: Odi, aged 23;3 - 24;1 months, MLU 1.4
From: Braine, M.D.S. 1976. Children's first word combinations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 41 (serial no. 164).
Indicating / or Identifying / Request Forms / Locatives / Other combinationspil ze / tire kos / ten la ~ li / yad sefer / od migdal
telfon ze / tiri rakevet / tni li / gafrurim yad / od ofnayim
ze gal / tiri kise / tni li katsefet / seret ..regel / odpam nandned
ze agala / tire ofnayim / ten li kova / Aba salon / odpam svivon
ze kapit / tiri rakevet gal / ten li mayim / yad sal / od svivon
ze gumi / tire yofi / ten li te / kan migdal / od dod
ze tiktak / tiri yofi / ten li oto / doda shama / od le-doda
ze sakin / tire en / ten li Elisa / hine kan / kova-le
ze masrek / tire kekeke / ten li ze / hine sham / Noa-le
ze kufsa / tire perax nafal / ten ~ tni li od / po yesh / buba-le
ze svivon / tire kan / yesh po / en tipot-af
ze dod / tiri buba kova / efo buba? / yesh kan / en ..masmer
ze buba / hine migdal / efo aba? / ma yesh kan / en li
ze iparon / hine masmerim / efo sus? / en li koax
ze od / hine aviron / efo ima? / lo te
ze enenu / hine sus / efo kova / lo kova
ze lax / hine kova / efo mazleg / lo yodaat
ze ima / hine Axi / efo shokolad / Odi alo
ze iparon ima / hine Ruti / efo kufsa? / arye (o)se
ze ima mishkafaim / hine od / efo uga? / (taa)se nadned
ze Axi tapuax / hine buba / efo bubale? / kxi zoti dan
ze oznayim buba / hine rosh / efo od? / kax od
ze seret / hine bayit / kacefet uga
ze traktor / hine Noale / masrek sim
gam ani
azov agala
yesh od
ma ze?
ma yesh?
mexapset tipot-af
Multi-word utterances of one Israeli girl – a longitudinal sample: Ephrat, aged 9 - 20 mos
From: Borochofsky, E. 1984. al tof'at haxikuy bereshit hadibur. Balshanut Ivrit Chofshit 22: 5-24.
1;5 aba li [= aba tavi ~ ten li]
ali kaxo, ali mi [= en li kaxol, en li mits = holds in hand, won't give it]
1;6 xatsilim lexem [when wanted bread w/ something spread on it]
neshika aba ~ krokodil [after has given kiss to her father, or to crocodile]
lalam lele fe [naalayim yeled yafe = hanaalayim shel hayeled yafot]
inne kele lalam [hine kelev naalayim = points to shoes of a dog]
1;7 dagim am [wants to give food to fish]
makot ima ~ aba ~ kise ~ Yigal [hitting something/someone that has upset her]
miyaw mixa [points to picture of cat in blanket]
ima roca kaki sir [wants to use potty]
ima, roca po-po-po kise [wants to climb up onto chair]
ima kuku rosh [wants Mother to make her a ponytail = kuku on her head]
Tamar kaytana. gam Yigal kaytana [in answer to question "efo Tamar?"]
ima, babim kos [wants grapes = anavim in cup]
1;8 ka?a ababim [od exad anavim : offers her mother another grape]
ka?a papim [od exad klafim : gives her mother another card]
ka?a paim [od exad praxim : sees another flower on next page]
?abe biba [harbe bubot : holds toy dog and monkey in her hand]
?ine lalam [hine naalayim: pointing to one of her shoes]
Is there grammar in these utterances?
What should the children acquire in order to build their grammar?
· The lexical categories: N, V, A, etc
· Word order
· The functional categories: D, I, C, etc.
· Phrase structure
· The relations between different constituents (e.g., between the verb and its arguments)
What does early grammar look like?
a. make house
b. sit on piano
c. like cereal / (2) Initial negation
a. No sit here
b. No Mom sharpen it
(3) Absence of auxiliary verbs:
a. not making muffins
b. Lois coming / (4) Wh-questions without Aux
a. What book name?
b. Why you smiling?
(5) No V2 in German
a. Mama bus malen
Mummy bus draw
b. Julia Treppen gehn
Julia stairs go / (6) Hebrew Genitive
a. Yael sefer ‘Yael's book'
b. buba pe
‘a doll's mouth’
Radford (1990) – A maturation hypothesis: Functional heads mature later than lexical heads
Maturation hypothesis: Early child nominals are pure lexical NPs which luck the adult functional system (D). These NPs also luck case and binding properties (indices).
1. a. I want piece bar [= a piece of the chocolate bar]
b. [NP [N piece] [NP [N bar]]]
c. [DP [D a] [NP [N piece] [PP [P of] [DP [D the] [NP [N bar]]]]]]
2. a. Mommy pick-up Kendall [= You picked me up] > No cases
3. a. Kendall see Kendall [= I see myself ] > No indices
Guilfoyle & Noonan (1992) – A structure building hypothesis: From lexical grammar to functional grammar.
The late maturation of the functional system entails
· Lack of movement
· Lack of checking (e.g. lack of nominative case)
Possible types of parameters
(1) Lexical variation in the input for the principles (Borer 1984, Manzini & Wexler 1987, Rizzi 1986)
(2) Parameterization of principles (Rizzi 1982)
(3) Application of principles at different levels of representation (Borer 1984, Huang 1982, Rizzi 1991).
But
Type (1) leads to Type (2) (Chomsky and Lasnik 1993)
In the minimalist framework (Chomsky 1993), there are no distinct levels of representation, so there are no type (3)
So
The Lexical Parameterization Hypothesis: “the values of a parameter are associated not with particular grammars, but with particular lexical items.” (Manzini & Wexler 1987)
The Lexical Parameterization Hypothesis: Values of a parameter are associated not with particular grammars but with particular functional items.
Features of each functional category
Deprez & Pierce (1994) show that there is no way to account for the acquisition of Wh-movement and negation, both in English and French, without assuming that at least IP is available to children from their very early word combinations.
The place of negation in French
<-finite> / <+finite>a. Pas la poupee dormir
Not the doll sleep / d. elle a pas la bouche
she has not the mouth
b. pas casser
not break / e. marche pas
works not
c. pas cherche les voitures
not look for the cars / f. est pas mort
is not dead
Conclusion: children move the verb to I and C, but it is optional
Accounts for optional movement
· An economy account – finiteness [+/- tense] is optional (Wexler 1992)
· Empty auxiliary – lexicalization of auxiliaries is optional (Boser et al. 1992)
· Distinctions in parameter setting – language particular constraints appear later (e.g. tense in I and C)
Early grammar – The structure of nominal phrases: possession and agreement
(1) a. sefer Miryam [Smadar 1;07;07]
book Miryam
`Miryam's book`
b. regel Dada
foot Dada (name of a doll)
`Dada's foot` [Smadar 1;07;16]
(2) Arik shel Miryami [Smadar 1;10;19]
Arik of Miryami
`Miryami's Arik` (=Ernie)
· Nominal gender and number: initially unanalyzed.
· Possession: English: Gia eyes, girl ball (Bloom 1970) > John’s room
Hebrew: Yael sefer > sefer Yael > sefer shel Yael
Yael book > book Yael > book of Yael
Order of acquisition of free genitive (by age)
possessor-possessed order / possessed-possessor order / shel - insertionHagar / -- / 1;07;2 / 1;07;17
Leor / 1;9;04 / 1;09;17 / 1;10
Lior / 1;09 / 1;10 / 1;11
Smadar / 1;06 / 1;07 / 1;10
1) Why do children start with the possessor-possessed order even when it does not exist in the input (the adult E-language)?
2) What triggers the change from possessor-possessed to possessed-possessor order?
3) What triggers the application of some form of of-insertion?
Data from Leor, boy aged 1;09 - 1;10;24
Leor 1;09;11 / taxzir [ tmunot sefer ] (1)
oy, ima tmuna / return picture book
oh, Mom picture / ‘return picture album’
`oh, Mom's picture`
od sefer tmunot (2)
od tmuna ima / more book picture
more picture Mommy / `another picture album`
`another picture of Mom`
Leor 1;09;17 (rep) / ish oto
mishkafayim doda ogi / man car
glasses aunt Orly / `the man of the car`
`Aunt Orly's glasses`
exad ecba / one-ms finger-fm
Leor 1;10;03 / roce [balon exad ] / want balloon one / `I want one balloon`
Leor 1;10;06 (rep) / I: efo ha-gabot shel savta?
L: gabot shel savta (3) / I: ‘where are the eyebrows of Grandma’
L: ‘eyebrows of Grandma’
I: ma ze?
L: ze shel saba / I: ‘what (is) this?’
L: ‘this (is) of Grandpa
gabot savta (2) / eyebrows Grandma
Leor 1;10;15 / na'alayim shel doda Ogi / shoes of aunt Orly
1) [NP [NPtmunot] [N' [N sefer ]]]
2) [DP od [D sefer ] [NP [NP tmunot] [N ti]]]
3) Associating more features with D, e.g., agreement features, expands it’s uses:
[DP od [D sefer ] [NP [DP [D shel] [NP tmunot]] [N ti]]]
At both transition points [(1-2) (2-3)] the child seems to gain new understanding only when he is obliged to believe that a change in his minimalist assumptions is mandatory. This happens either because some functional projection must be used to host a longer string of constituents (1-2) or because it makes a difference in meaning, given the discourse context, that he perceives (2-3). This causes the appearance of optional usage. This situation repeats itself when the determiner is used and next with accusative case.
· Definiteness ha-: one word > sentence fragments > subject position > object position
· Overt cases - accusative et:
Steps in early acquisition of the direct object marker et (Berman 1993):
No suitable context[no +def Object NPs] / Omitted in context
[except formulaic] / Initial usage
[sporadic] / Well established
[most oblig contexts]
Hagar / 1;10 / 1;11 / 2;00 / 2;01 - 2;02
Leor / 2;00 / 2;01-2;02 / 2;03 / 2;05
Smadar / 1;07 / 1;08 / 1;10 / 1;11
Noun-adjective agreement (in gender, number and definiteness):
A relatively late acquisition (after shel ‘of’) - from lexical knowledge of the nominal-morphological system (in 1.) to syntactic knowledge (in 2.):
1. Yuval, 2;01;02 / 2. Yuval 2;03;14Y: (x)ayo(t) (g)dolim
animals,fm big,pl,ms
M: ken, xayot gdolot
yes, animals,fm big,pl,fm
Y: dubim (g)dolot
bears,ms big,pl,fm
Y: (xi)pushit (g)dolo(t)
beetle,fm big,pl,fm
M: naxon, xipushit gdola
yes, beetle,fm big,fm
Y: (xi)pushit (g)dola
bug,fm big,fm
Y: dag (g)dola
fish,ms big,fm / Y: Yuvali gadol
Yuvali (ms) big-ms
M: ve ma Gali?
and what (is) Gali?
Y: Gali gdola.
Gali (fm) big-fm
M: ve ha-dagim?
and the-fishes (ms)?
Y: ktanim.
little-pl-ms
M: ve ma ze po?
and what (is) this here?
Y: xipushiyot.
beetles
M: *xipushiyot ktanim?
beetles(ms) little-pl-ms?
Y: xipushiyot ktanot
beetles-fm little-pl-fm