The emergence of linguistic productivity. Holger Diessel University of Jena holger.diessel @uni-jena.de http://www.holger-diessel.de/. Linguistic productivity. Language is productive. What underlies the productive use of language?. Standard answer: A linguistic rule.
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The emergence of linguistic productivity
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Linguistic productivity Language is productive. What underlies the productive use of language? Standard answer: A linguistic rule. What exactly is a rule?
Overgeneralization errors 1. Children produce the correct forms: went, kissed, saw 2. Children overgeneralize the regular past tense form: ringed, sayed. But only 2% of all irregular verbs are regularized. Great variability. 3. Children produce the correct forms.
Berko 1958 • Performance is not consistent. • Forms with [@d] are less often regularized than forms with [t] and [d]. • Real irregular English verb forms (i.e. ring) are less often regularized.
Rules What did the children learn? -> A linguistic rule. What is a linguistic rule? Linguistic rules are often compared to mathematical equations or commands in a programming language: (4 x 3) + 5 = 17<table border="0" cellspacing=5 cellpadding=5>
Rules phonological rule /t/ → [th] / #_ phrase structure rule NP → DET (ADJ) N semantic rule "x [Student(x) -> Talks(x)] morphological rule V + [ed] = PAST sing -> sang read -> read sleep -> slept go -> went ring-ed cutt-ed go-ed went-ed Rules + performance factors
Bybee and Slobin 1982 The overgeneralization rate is determined by two factors: (1) Frequency (2) Phonetic form (=similarity)
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Hypotheses: (1) Infrequent irregular verbs will be regularized more often than frequent irregular verbs. (2) Irregular verbs that are phonetically similar to regular verbs are regularized less frequently than irregular verbs that are phonetically different from regular verbs.
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Children (1,5-5,0) Spontaneous production data This is a girl who knows how to __ . She is __ing. She did the same thing yesterday. What did she do yesterday? Yesterday she __ .
Bybee and Slobin 1982 School children (8,9-10,1) When I get a ballon, I always blow it up. Yesterday I __ . Adults Elicitation of past tense forms under time pressure: 90 irregular verbs and 270 regular verbs
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Infrequent verbs were more often regularized than infrequent ones. Since frequent verbs are deeply entrenched in memory, they are less likely to change.
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Irregular verbs that are phonetically similar to regular verbs are less frequently regularized than irregular verbs that are phonetically different from regular verbs.
Bybee and Slobin 1982 1. Verbs that do not change at all: beat-beat, cut-cut 2. Verbs that change a final [d] to [t]: send-sent, build-built 3. Verbs that change the stem vowel and end in [t/d]: bite-bit, find-found 4. Verbs that change the stem vowel and a final [d] to [t]: feel-felt, lose-lost 5. Verbs that change the stem vowel, delete a final C, and add [t]: bring-brought 6. Verbs that change [I] to [{] or [ö]: sing-sang, sting-stung 7. Verbs that change the stem vowel in other ways: give-gave, break-broke 8. Verbs that change a final diphthong: blow-blew, fly-flew
Bybee and Slobin 1982 • Addition of an alveolar plosive [t/d] in the past • The occurrence of an alveolar plosive [t/d] in the past and present • The occurrence of a stem vowel change
Bybee and Slobin 1982 • Type 1. Verbs that form the past tense by a changing stem vowel and the addition of [t/d]. • Type 2. Verbs that end in both present and past in an alveolar plosive [t/d]. • Type 3. Verbs that form the past tense by a changing stem vowel and do not end in [t/d].
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Why are type 1 verbs less frequently regularized than the two other types of verbs? walk walked
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Why are type 1 verbs less frequently regularized than the two other types of verbs? walk feel walked felt
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Why are type 2 verbs less often regularized than type 3 verbs? walk walked
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Why are type 2 verbs less often regularized than type 3 verbs? walk find walked found
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Why are type 2 verbs less often regularized than type 3 verbs? walk sing walked sang
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Why are type 2 verbs less often regularized than type 3 verbs? walk sing walked sanged
Bybee and Slobin 1982 More than 80% of verbs such as see, fly, blow were regularized. Why?
Bybee and Slobin 1982 Matching problem “The phonological clue which the child can use in matching base with past is the consonantal structure of the verb. … Some verbs offer more consonantal structure than others, and would therefore be easier to master.” (277)
Bybee and Modor 1983 /m/ swim swam swum come came come/n/ begin began begun run ran run/Î/ ring rang rung* sing sang sung spring sprang sprung/Îk/ drink drank drunk shrink shrank shrunksink sank sunk stink stank stunk [æ]-class
Bybee and Modor 1983 Subjects: adult speakersItems: 93 nonce words 16 real verbsTechnique: Elicitation of past tense under time pressure
Bybee and Modor 1983 • Stem vowel • Initial consonant cluster • Final consonant cluster
Bybee and Modor 1983 Stem vowel:Verbs including [I] are more likely to form irregular past tense forms /like sing-sang) than verbs including other stem vowels. flink flunk gleak gloke
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