W3 Language learning ✅

Question 1

What are 4 reasons for difficulty in language learning?

Answer 1

1. Can’t just be point and name -> uncommon & not universal, usually only nouns
2. The mapping problem - does a word mean sth as a whole or a part of it (e.g. does ‘Gavagai’ means the animal itself OR part of that animal)
3. Under-extension (too specific)
4. Over-extension (too generalised)

Question 2

What do we know about early-word comprehension in infants? (2)

Answer 2

1. Comprehension precedes production -> 2 yrs old can comprehend 2-3x more words than they can produce
2. Development:
   * Can comprehend nouns (~6 months) and later with verbs (~10 months)
   * Between 18 - 24 months, infants get much faster on the looking (at corresponding pictures) while listening (to words) task

Question 3

What do we know about early-word production in infants? (2)

Answer 3

1. First word (can range from many categories - nouns/verbs etc.) at ~12 months
   -> By 24-30 months, can produce ~500 words
2. Lack of articles
3. Early noun bias: predominance of nouns in vocabulary (cross-culturally)
4. Produce words that are used in a variety of situations (e.g. people and objects’ names, actions, properties)
5. Production errors:

• Under-extension: only use words in specific contexts or one thing only
• Over-extension: word used beyond true meaning (frequent) -> could be due to category error or vocab limitations

Question 4

What are the three theories on language learning in children?

Answer 4

1. Innate constraints theory
2. Structural cues
3. The Social-Pragmatic approach

Question 5

What is meant by Innate Constraints theory?

Answer 5

Four innate rules that help children infer word meanings

1. Object constraints: words refer to objects - early noun bias
2. Whole-object constraint: word refers to whole objects rather than its parts
3. Principle of contrast: no two words have exact same meaning (overcome overextension)
4. Mutual exclusivity: no object has more than one name (override whole-object constraint and learn object parts)

Question 6

What are the problems with each theory?

Theories for word learning: innate-C, structural & social pragmatic

Answer 6

1. Innate constraints theory
   * Describing rather than explaining
   * What about non-noun words?
   * Are constraints innate or learned via experience?
   * Are constraints specific to language?
2. Structural cues
   * Not clear which part of sentence structure children are sensitive to
   * Pre-existing knowledge of words and word categories is needed for structural cues.
   * Is the findings valid for long-term language development? (or just problem-solving)
   * Can’t solve all problems (one word can mean many things)
3. Social-pragmatic approach
   * What inferential skills does children use for language acquisition? (‘how’)
   * Can this process account for the acquisition of complex syntax?

Question 7

How does knowing structural cue (theory) help children to learn and infer words?

Answer 7

1. Syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis: using sentence structure (syntax) to identify word category and then figure out word meaning.
   -> Evidence: 3-5 yrs old is showed picture of kneading a bowl -> ask to pick sibbing, a sib and sib from pictures with different action, container and substangces.
2. Figuring out nouns or adjectives by how they are used in sentences
   -> Evidence 2: 4-yr-olds picked different object when asked to find the ‘fep’ one vs. find the ‘fep’)
   -> Evidence 3: 14-month-olds can extend novel nouns and adjectives
   * for nouns - extend to category but not property
   * for adjectives - don’t extend AT ALL
   => same evidence for older infants (18 - 21 months old) showing that this rule appears early for nouns
3. Can be used to narrow down verb meaning using structural cues.

Question 8

What is meant by the social-pragmatic approach?

Answer 8

• Children learn words and word meaning from pragmatic (social context) cues -> remove ambiguities around word meaning.
• Word learning is constrained in two main ways:
  1. How the social world is structured (e.g. routines, social interactions)
  2. Social-cognitive skills (joint attention, intention reading)
• Children learn language in familiar social contexts in repeated daily routines.
  => learn almost all their early language in cultural routines
• During joint attention, word learning occurs when children attempt to interpret speaker’s communicative intentions.
  => Shared common ground reduces the possible referents (eliminating known words)

Evidence of social-cognitive skills:

1. Joint attention:
   * 18 - 20 months: learn names for objects better during joint attention
   * Gaze-following behaviour (10 months) predicts language skills at 18 months
2. Intention reading:
   * 2-year-olds understand that a novel word refers to object adult looking for rather than objects they have rejected (e.g. if they both know object B name, then [xyz] must mean name of object A)

Question 9

Conclusions for word learning during infancy?

Answer 9

• Language learning is not isolated (cognitive, social, environmental factors)
• Children show key patterns in how they use language
  1. Comprehension precedes production
  2. Early noun bias
• Children have access to various information sources during word learning (e.g. intention reading)
• 2 different theories to try to explain how children learn word meanings

Question 10

Critical evaluation of word learning proposed theories?

General limitations of all 3 theories

Answer 10

• Unclear when different information is used at different stages of development.
• Would we expect the same strategies across languages and cultures?
• How do children learn less salient words (e.g., the) or words that are more abstract? (e.g., happiness, justice)

Question 11

What are the 2 hypotheses for noun bias in early word production in infants?

Answer 11

• Natural partition hypothesis: easier to denote concrete objects (nouns) from surrounding than abstract concepts (verbs/adjectives)
• Socially mediated word learning: learning occurs in situations easiest to read adult’s intentions - usually happens with nouns
  => solve problem of NOT all first-words are nouns