1 / 19

How do children learn language?

How do children learn language?. Not just through imitation => Novel utterances Adult Grammar NP => Det N a pencil NP => Poss N my pencil Child Grammar NP => Det Det N a my pencil. Creative Morphology. Noun > Verb Why didn’t you jam my bread? Let’s get brooming .

sfleet
Download Presentation

How do children learn language?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. How do children learn language? • Not just through imitation • => Novel utterances • Adult Grammar • NP => Det N a pencil • NP => Poss N my pencil • Child Grammar • NP => Det Det N a my pencil

  2. Creative Morphology • Noun > Verb • Why didn’t you jam my bread? • Let’s get brooming. • Creative affixation • I hate you and I’ll never unhate youǃ

  3. Not through reinforcement • Child: Want other one spoon, Daddy. • Father: You mean, you want the • other spoon. • Child: Yes, I want other one spoon, • please, Daddy.

  4. Grammar Construction Hypothesis Children make systematic, not random, “errors” • Innateness Hypothesis Children learn the language of their environment naturally until puberty.

  5. Characteristics of Innate Behaviors • 1. Emerges before necessary • 2. Not result of conscious decision • 3. Not triggered by external events • 4. Not affected by explicit instruction • 5. Proceeds in stages, “milestones” • 6. Has critical period for aquisition

  6. Stages/Milestones • Cooing: 1-4 months • Babbling: 4-20 months • One-word: 12-18 months • Two-word: 18-24 months • Multi-word: 24 months

  7. One-word (12 months) • Dada (father enters the room) • Down (child sits down) • Door (father closes the door) • Here (child points) • Mama (child gives something • to mother) • Again (child watches lighting • of a match again)

  8. Two-word (1.5-2 years) • Few function words • No morphological or syntactic markers

  9. allgone sock • hi Mommy • byebye boat • allgone sticky • more wet • it ball • Katherine sock • dirty sock • here pretty

  10. Multi-Word (2-2.5 years) • sentences 3 or more words in length • few function words • few, if any, morphological or syntactic markers

  11. Cat stand up table. • What that? • He play little tune. • Andrew want that. • Cathy build house. • No sit there. • Chair broken. • Daddy like book. • What her name? • Car make noise. • Me wanna show Mommy.

  12. Comprehension Precedes Production • Children in the telegraphic stage respond better to grammatical utterances, even though they don’t necessarily produce them. • 18 months • Cookie Monster is tickling Big Bird. • *Cookie Monster can tickling Big Bird.

  13. 15 months • you ___ the … • V/*N • the ___ is … • N/*V

  14. Questions • Stage I: Intonation, no auxiliary verb • See hole? • I ride train? • Ball go? • Sit chair?

  15. Stage II: wh-word, no auxiliary verb • What he wants? • What he can ride in? • Where I should put it? • Where Ann pencil? • Why you smiling?

  16. Stage III: Inversion in yes/no questions • Did Mommy pinch her finger? • Can’t you fix it? • Do I have it? • Will you help me? • Is Mommy talking to Robin’s granddmother?

  17. But not wh-questions • What I did yesterday? • Why Kitty can’t stand up? • Where I should put it? • Where I should sleep? • Why you are smiling?

  18. Overgeneralization • SingularPlural • cat cats • toe toes • man mans • foot foots

  19. Critical Period Hypothesis • “Genie” • Mike paint. • Applesauce buy store. • Man motorcycle have. • Want go ride Miss F. car. • Genie have full stomache. • Mama have baby grow up.

More Related