lecture 9 Flashcards
(40 cards)
what is syntax?
the combining of words in a systematic, rule-governed fashion
it allows you to communicate about events, not just single things
syntax vs. morphology
word order conveys information vs. affixes convey information
syntax example
the farmer looks at the girl
vs.
the girl looks at the farmer
morphology example
case markings on nouns:
cry vs. cried vs. crying
inflectional morphology
- change (inflect) meaning slightly
- pluralize (cat +s)
- verb meaning (cry+ing)
- noun case (cat + ‘s)
derivational morphology
- change the part of speech - to derive a new word
- “to rock” –> rocker (V to N)
- “rocker” –> rockery (N to Adj.)
nativist views of syntax
chomsky
all human language explained by set of rules
those rules are unique to language (and humans)
- visual system doesn’t work like language
language is MODULAR
- dedicated brain regions
- other cognitive factors can’t touch
empiricist views of syntax
syntax is one of several pieces of information that people use to figure out what someone is trying to communicate
other cognitive factors interact with syntax in real time
- what you know about particular words
- the world around you
- what you know about the person talking
evolution of developmental syntax
chomsky
language is a set of rules: universal grammar
- with parameter settings varying by language
captured complexity of language behavior
suggested that people are specially equipped to acquire language
sent psycholinguists on a quest to find out when various syntactic rules are acquired
- can use this as a descriptive system without adhering to a nativist view - don't have to use this as a descriptive system
joint attention
kid figures out that the adult is probably TALKING ABOUT what he is LOOKING AT
Discourse context
Akhtar 2002
- “This is a blue one, a green one, a DACKY one” (dacky is understood as a color)
- “This is a smooth one, a fuzzy one, a dacky one” (dacky is understood as a texture)
Ostension
direct, overt labeling of objects
connecting words and concepts
various flavors of “new word applies to new object”
constraints
principle of contrast
shape bias
constraints of connecting words and concepts
whole-object constraint
mutual exclusivity
principle of contrast
kids assume any two words must mean different things (but they can be just slightly different things)
shape bias
categories defined by shape
NOT color/texture
related to the count/mass grammatical distinction among nouns
count nouns
staple, pen
can be pluralized
usually an object(s)
a stapler, two pens, many staples
NOT *some stapler or *too much pen
mass nouns
grass, water
no plural
usually a substance
some water, too much grass
NOT *a water, *two grasses, *many sands
how shape bias is acquired
experiment of Samuelson and Smitth, 1999
- looked at kids’ vocab and shape bias
- kids didn’t start showing “shape generalization” until they knew a large number of nouns (which predominantly referred to shape)
- therefore, shape bias is acquired to vocab
what about things that aren’t imageable nouns?
because some things aren’t imageable: “contemplate” or “jingoism”
because some things aren’t nouns
the noun bias
far more nouns in early vocabularies than anything else (in MOST languages studied)
why the noun bias?
nouns are typically easier
nouns are syntactically easier
the noun bias: Gilette et. al
do kids show noun bias because they have different concepts or because verbs are harder to learn syntactically?
- they did a “human simulation” with adults (adults know a lot, conceptually, about verbs and nouns, so conceptual knowledge shouldn’t be a problem)
- mother-child interactions
- verbs are less OBSERVABLE and thus must be inferred using noun and syntax information
one language without noun bias
Mandarin!
more verbs said
verbs are less variable in form (not as many irregular verbs)
