lecture 7 grammar development

Question 1

define grammar

Answer 1

whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology

Question 2

define syntax

Answer 2

arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language

Question 3

define morphology

Answer 3

the study of the forms of things - combining morphemes to create complex words

Question 4

define morpheme

Answer 4

smallest unit of language that carries meaning
ie free morpheme “cat”
bound morphemes attached to free morphemes - ie ‘cat-s’

Question 5

define MLU

Answer 5

mean length utterance

the number of morphemes used in a specific time frame

Question 6

MLU in first stage of synactic development (brown)

Answer 6

1. 75

forms: telegraphic and word order

Question 7

MLU in second stage of syntactic development (brown)

Answer 7

2. 25

forms: added morphemes ie eat-ing

Question 8

MLU in third stage of syntactic development (brown)

Answer 8

2. 75

forms: asking questions, negation/contradiction, and copula (connecting word - ‘is’)

Question 9

MLU in fourth stage of synactic development (brown)

Answer 9

3. 50

forms: complex sentences, past tense and third person

Question 10

MLU in fifth stage of syntactic development (brown)

Answer 10

4.0

further complexity - coordinate nounds and verb phases, include conjunctions ie ‘but’ ‘if’

Question 11

do children make grammatical errors

Answer 11

utterances tend to be error free - main errors are omission not commission of words which are simplified versions of adult forms and therefore arguably grammatically correct

Question 12

describe the learning account of grammar acquisition

Answer 12

learn language via experience - produce grammatical sentences by imitation and reinforcement
parental approval/disapproval of utterances reinforces child’s use of correct grammatical utterances

Question 13

what is the bakers paradox

Answer 13

Projection Problem: “What is the functional relation that exists between an arbitrary human being’s early linguistic experience (his ‘primary linguistic data’) and his resulting adult intuitions?”
concerns the acquisition of negative exceptions: How does the learner know that the double object construction is not available to certain verbs
ie John donated a painting to the museum/them.
*John donated the museum/them a painting.
child cannot rely on direct negative feedback. At the same time, the child cannot assume unattested linguistic forms to be ungrammatical in general

Question 14

what is the learnability problem

Answer 14

if learn form experience then learning language from a limited set of examples ie via overhearing and being spoken to
- chomsky argues too complicated to learn language fully from simple examples

Question 15

describe no negative evidence for bakers paradox

Answer 15

learners don’t use negative evidence to acquire their native language - Negative evidence can be
defined as evidence against the grammaticality of some sentence type, that is, evidence that it is ungrammatical
- children dont learn incorrect grammar by beign told they are wrong

Question 16

describe the generalisation problem of language acquisition (learnability problem)

Answer 16

children have hypothesised language which does not meet the language target as a whole
assume sentences they head in their environment are the allowed grammatical constructs
generalised their hypothesised language to the target language - language grows from examples in environment which provides understanding of grammar (examples not necessarily good)

Question 17

describe the retreat problem

Answer 17

assume all possible grammatical structures are allowed and therefore hypothesised grammar overshoots target - must reduce hypothesised to meet accepted constructs
BUT THIS DOESNT HAPPEN - DONT RETREAT WHEN WRONG

Question 18

what is the language acquisition device

Answer 18

that can seem to form grammatically correct sentence without experience may imply that have innate mechanism for for universal understanding of grammatical principles

• LAD specifies fundamental grammatical principles shared by all languages, therfore ability to acquire lang is innate, domain specific and uniquely human

Question 19

features of LAD

Answer 19

universal
nativist
modular
minimal role of experience

Question 20

how does the LAD work

Answer 20

principles - universal innate rules about language specific to all languages (can be applied to all instances)
child first applied parameters- based on the language the child hears and then uses the principles to the language
ie is reference to subject necessary in a sentence? yes in french or English, no in Spanish

Question 21

does negative evidence exist

Answer 21

no evidence that approval or disapproval contingent on syntax - parents correct only semantic errors

parental recasts are more likely after error ie parent rephrase childs sentence

Question 22

describe direct contrast hypothesis (is negative feedback used?)

Answer 22

saxton
child contrast error with parents repetition/recast of their sentence
provide correct forms of childrens utterances

Ie yes he did eat it

Question 23

descibe prompt hypothesis (is negative feedback used?)

Answer 23

saxton
neg feedback prompt to switch from erroneous to correct form
- parent requests clarification of their grammar “he did what?” that causes child to shift to correct use

Question 24

stats of specific language impairment

Answer 24

7% of 5 year olds

language skill sig below age norm but normal IQ, hearing,, motor etc

Question 25

characteristics of specific language impairment

Answer 25

poor vocab - late talker
omission of grammatical morphemes ie “i need go now!
difficulties interpreting subtleties in lang
some articulation problems
delayed lang - likely to link to disability in adulthood

Question 26

incomplete grammatical rule systems (explanation of SLI)

Answer 26

SLI genetic imapirment to LAD causing immature grammatical development, inability to induce gramar and reliance on rote learning

Question 27

difficulty processing grammatical morphemes (explanation of SLI)

Answer 27

grammar specific processing impairment due to difficulty in perceiving and using low salience/low freq morphemes

Question 28

auditory processing deficit (explanation of SLI)

Answer 28

difficulty with processing rapid auditorily presented information - impairment of auditory procesing not specific to language itself

Question 29

generally limited processing ability (explanation of SLI)

Answer 29

generalised slowing hypothesis - limited working memory capacity that influences general processing ability but affeects language due to rapidity of development