psy 369: psycholinguistics
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PSY 369: Psycholinguistics. Language Acquisition. Announcements. On-line Blackboard quiz for chapter 4 is now up. You may take it 5 times, top score counts I am pushing Exam 2 back a day. We will have the exam on Feb. 28. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
PSY 369: Psycholinguistics
Language Acquisition
Announcements On-line Blackboard quiz for chapter 4 is now up.
You may take it 5 times, top score counts I am pushing Exam 2 back a day. We will have the
exam on Feb. 28. Language development section includes information
from Chapter 3, pages 72-87 Homework #2 due Feb. 21st
Nice video series (6 parts) on language acquisition Another nice clip about an experiment on infant language perception
Language Sponges Learning words
General patterns and observations Sounds Meaning
Proposed Strategies/constraints
Learning Syntax Learning Morphology
Language Sponges
About 3,000 new words per year, especially in the primary grades
As many as 8 new words per day Production typically lags behind comprehension
Learning words
12 ms first words
2 yrs 200 words
3 yrs 1,000 words
6 yrs 15,000 words
Early word learning
First words (Around 10-15 months) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of
phonologically consistent forms 1 word stage typically lasts around 10 months Have learned first 50 words by 15 – 24 months Typically focused on the “here and now”
Early word learning
First words (Around 10-15 months) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of
phonologically consistent forms
Early word learning
Developed in systematic ways Not simply imitation, rather are creative Learned importance of consistency of names
First words (Around 10-15 months) Emergence of systematic, repeated productions of
phonologically consistent forms Idiomorphs - personalized words
“Adult words” - Typically context bound (relevant to the immediate environment)
Important people, objects that move, objects that can be acted upon, familiar actions
Nouns typically appear before verbs
Early speech production Transition to speech
This is your fis?Your fis?Oh, your fish.
No. … my fis.No. My fis!Yes, my fis.
Early speech production
This is your fis? Transition to speech
No, … my fis.
Your fis. No, my fis.
Oh, your fish. Yes, my fis.
Can’t hear the difference? Rejects adult saying ‘fis’
Can’t produce the correct sounds?
Sometimes, but evidence suggests not always the case
More general process of simplification
“frees up” resources for concentrating on other aspects of language learning
Early speech production
Common Phonological processes Reduction
Delete sounds from words (“da” for dog) Coalescence
Combine different syllables into one syllable (“paf” for pacifier)
Assimilation Change one sound into a similar sound within the
word (“fweet” for sweet) Reduplication
One syllable from a multi-syllabic word is repeated (“baba” for bottle)
Transition to speech individual diffs, but some regularities
Indeterminacy: Frog
FrogFrog?
Green?Jumping?
Ugly?
Indeterminacy: Frog
Frog
????
Quine’s gavagai problem The problem of reference:
A word may refer to a number of referents (real world objects)
A single object or event has many objects, parts and features that can be referred to
FrogFrog?
Green?Ugly?
Jumping?
Extensions of meaning
Extension Finding the appropriate limits of the meaning of words Overextension
Applying a word too broadly Mostly based on perceptual features (but other features too:
sound, movement, size, texture extension) Very common in early word learning (Rescorla, 1980 1/3
of first 75 words) Underextension
Applying a word too narrowly e.g., “round” only for their ball
Applying the words to referents
Extensions of meaning
“tee”
Extensions of meaning
“tee”1:9,11
Extensions of meaning
“tee”1:9,111:10,18
Extensions of meaning
“tee”
“googie”
1:9,111:10,18
1:11,1
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”1:11,27 “pushi”
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”1:11,27 “pushi”2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh”
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”1:11,27 “pushi”2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh”2:0,20
“biggie googie”
Extensions of meaning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”1:11,27 “pushi”2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh”2:0,20
“biggie googie”
One-word-per-referent heuristic If a new word comes in for a referent that is already named, replace it Exception to that was “horse,” but it only lasted a day here
Strategies for learning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”1:11,27 “pushi”2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh”2:0,20
“biggie googie”
Expansion and contraction can occur at the same time
Strategies for learning
1:9,111:10,18
“tee”
1:11,1
1:11,2“googie”
1:11,24
1:11,25 “tee/hosh”1:11,26 “hosh”1:11,27 “pushi”2:0,10 “moo-ka” “hosh”2:0,20
“biggie googie”
Child tries different things, if a word doesn’t work then they try something else
e.g., hosh didn’t for for the large dog, switched to biggie doggie
Learning word meanings
Fast mapping (Carey & Bartlett, 1978) Using the context to guess the meaning of a word
Learning words
“Please give me the chromium tray. Not the blue one, the chromium one.”
All got the olive tray Several weeks later still had some of the meaning
Only took one trial to establish the mappingvideo
Constraints on Word Learning
Perhaps children are biased to entertain certain hypotheses about word meanings over others
These first guesses save them from logical ambiguity Get them started out on the right track
Mutual exclusivity constraint Object-scope (whole object) constraint Taxonomic constraint
Learning words Cognitive Constraints (Markman, 1989)
Kids choose the corkscrew it is a less well known object for which they don’t yet
have a label.
‘Show me a dax’:
Mutual exclusivity constraint (Markam and Watchel 1988)
Each object has one label & different words refer to separate, non-overlapping categories of objects
An object can have only one label
Strategies for learning
Object-scope (whole object) constraint Words refer to whole objects rather than to parts of
objects
Strategies for learning
Dog
Taxonomic constraint Words refer to categories of
similar objects Taxonomies (categories)
rather than thematically related obejcts
Strategies for learning
‘See this? Can you find another one?’
No Word condition
Theme response
Taxonomyresponse
‘Show me another lux’
‘Here is a lux’
Word condition
Theme response
Taxonomyresponse
Shape versus function
Strategies for learning
Landau, Smith, & Jones, (1998)
Category members often share shape and function. Do kids use both pieces of information?
‘Is this a rif/dax?’
‘Here is a dax’
No Function
Name Q condition
Same shape
Same function
‘Is this a rif/dax?’
‘Here is a dax’
Function
Name Q condition
Same shape
Same function
‘Can you mop-up water with tihis?’
‘Here is a dax. A
Dax can mop-up water’
Function
Function Q condition
Same shape
Same function
Shape versus function
Strategies for learning
Landau, Smith, & Jones, (1998)
Category members often share shape and function. Do kids use both pieces of information?
For kids, shape seems to be more important than function for learning names. Adults focus more on function.
Problem with constraints
Most of the constraints proposed apply only to object names.
What about verbs? (Nelson 1988) There have been cases where children have been
observed violating these constraints Using for example the word ‘car’ only to refer to ‘cars moving
on the street from a certain location’ (Bloom 1973) The mutual exclusivity constraint would prevent
children from learning subordinate and superordinate information (animal < dog < poodle)
The language explosion is not just the result of simple semantic development; the child is not just adding more words to his/her vocabulary.
Child is mastering basic syntactic and morphological processes.
Language explosion continues