LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 1

Language Acquisition

4.

Elena Lieven, MPI-EVA, Leipzig

School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 2

Outline for Session 4

MAIN TOPIC: Studying languages other than English

‘Exotic languages’ and issues they raise

Comparing cues within a language

Comparisons across languages

POST BREAKLearning language environment in different cultures

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 3

Typological discoveries (1)

Children are sensitive from the outset of speaking to the semantic distinctions made in their language (Bowerman & Choi)

PICTURE Korean English

Cassette in box Fit tightly In

Apple in bowl Put loosely In

Put top on pen Fit tightly On

Put book in bag Put loosely In

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 4

Typological discoveries (2)Chintang – a Tibeto-Burman language of East Nepal• Free ordering of verbal prefixes• Tense nearer to stem than aspect• Complex system of location marking • Location marking also used to express interpersonal

relations

What is the frequency and pattern of usage of these constructions in the speech of adults?How are they used in speech to children?

Do children make errors predicted by putative linguistic or cognitive universals or do they learn the language in its specificity?

CommunicativeEnvironment!!

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 5

Within-language studies

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 6

Productive morphology

• Does productivity develop?

• Are children less productive than adults?

Constructivist model: children are less productive, even with the verbs and affixes that they know, at younger ages and than their parents, since they are slowly building the abstract categories

Full competence model: with the verbs and affixes that they know, children are fully productive

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 7

Spanish verb inflections[Aguado Orea & Pine]

Nottingham corpus• Lucia: 22 hours: 2;2.25 – 2;7.14• Juan; 31 hours: 1;1-.21 – 2;5.28 • Only verbs used by both adult and child

– stem – agreement properties

• Adult sample of verb tokens randomly reduced to number found in child’s speech

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 8

Number of inflections per stem

• No significant difference between parents• Significant difference between children and

parents at both tested ages• For Juan, significant difference between first and

second half of the corpus

High frequency verbs have significantly fewer errorsSome person marking is almost always correct, but overgeneralised (1sg)Other person marking is almost always incorrect and another highly frequentform is used (3pl)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 9

Marking of German plurals

Köpcke: Cue strength: salience, type frequency, cue validity, iconicityBehrens:-s generalisation errors limited to distributional conditions in the inputSzagun: growth rates in type frequencies per marker match the input

Regularity – recurrent patternGenerality – type frequency

Default – only productive plural marker – English

-s - emergency general ending - German

Schemas – independent of rest of noun declensionInflection classes – gender and four cases in singular

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 10

Morphological productivity[Laaha et al, in submission]

- The ability to freely form new morphological forms

- Degrees of productivity:- All feminine and animate masculine nouns ending in schwa

take the –en plural -en plural fully productive for feminine nouns ending in

schwa competes with –s for feminine nouns ending in consonant

Even the youngest children sensitive to feminine/non-feminine distinctionDegree of productivity played a role at all agesInput frequency had an effect for some pluralsMorphological transparency for some forms – leave off Umlaut

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 11

Case marking and word order in German using novel verbs

[Dittmar et al – MPI-EVA]

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 12

OS+Case21%

SO+Case68%

SO-Case11%

Distribution of SO- and OS-order with unambiguous and ambiguous case marking for German transitive sentences in the input

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 13

100%

86%86%

68%

87%

79%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

cue availability cue reliability cue validity

case marking

word order

Availability, reliability and validity for the grammatical cues word order and case marking for German transitive sentences in the input

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 14

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2;7-year-olds (N = 16) 5-year-olds (N = 16) 7-year-olds (N = 16)

Prototype

Word order only

Conflict

**

**

**** **

Mean proportion of correct pointing

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 15

Comparisons across languages

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 16

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

2,0 2,6 3,0 3,6 4,0 4,6 5,0 8,0

.German

. Japanese

. Hebrew

. Hebrew

. Japanese [Matsui et al.]

[Wittek]

% c

hild

ren

Novel verb studies of Syntax (Tomasello, Cognition, 2000)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 17

Weird linking[Abbot-Smith, MPI-EVA]

Models: always weird

Sentence: The bunnyNOM is pushing/domming the dogACC

Action: Dog pushing/domming bunny

Elicitation:

Action: Lion domming frog

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 18

Exp: And now you tell me what happens, ok?

Chi: Yes.

Exp: Who is doing what?

Chi: The lion, it [+nom] is domming the [+acc] frog.

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 19

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

4s familiarverb (N = 16)

4s novelverb

2s familiarverb (N = 16)

2s novelverb

ungrammatical linking

grammatical linking

Grammatical and ungrammatical linking used by German children (those who used both target verbs in a transitive or intransitive in both conditions at least once)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 20

0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

0,7

0,8

0,9

1

Familiar Verb Novel Verb Familiar Verb Novel Verb

German 2;4-year-olds (N = 30) English 2;4-year-olds (N = 30)

Mea

n pr

opor

tion

of li

nkin

g re

spon

ses

Ungrammatical linking

Grammatical linking

Mean proportion of grammatical and ungrammatical linking used by German versus English children

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 21

• Il pousse Mary (He pushes Mary)

• Il la pousse (He pushes her)

Weird word order in French [Matthews et al, submitted]

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 22

0.00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.91.0

Low SOV Low VSO High SOV High VSO

Verb frequency and modelled word order

Mea

n pr

opor

tion

res

pons

es

Match

Single Revert

Full Revert

Mean proportion of Matches, Single Argument Reversions and Full Reversions as a function of verb frequency and modelled word order (mean age 2;10).

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 23

Weird word order in English and French [Matthews et al,submitted]

00.10.20.30.4

0.50.60.70.80.9

SOV 2;10 SOV 3;9 SOV 2;9 SOV 3;9

French French English English

Pro

por

ion

cor

rect

ion

s

% no object

% pro object

% lex object

Mean proportion of canonically ordered responses that expressed no object, a pronominal object or a lexical object as a function of age and language.

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 24

Other languages[Stoll, Abbot-Smith & Lieven, in prep.]

• English has very fixed word order• The tiger ate the mouse• The mouse ate the tiger

• German is more variable but has more case inflections

• Der Tiger frisst den Hund• Den Hund hat der Tiger gefressen

• Russian has ‘free word order’• Ja videl svoju mašinu (all 24 words orders

possible)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 25

Proportions of utterances accounted for by frames

0102030405060708090

100

% of utterances

English German Russian

Frames

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 26

Proportions of one, two and three-word frames

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

English German Russian

3-word

2-word

1-word

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 27

Imperatives• ENGLISH:

– Look.... = .10 Come/on... = .10

• GERMAN:– Guck(e)/mal ... =.14 Komm/mal... = .06„ Look...“ „Come...“

• RUSSIAN:– Skazhi ... = .09 Davaj ... = .15„Say ...“ „Give /

Let‘s ...“

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 28

Wh-questions

0102030405060708090

100

% of wh-questions

English German Russian

Core frames

27 13 16

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 29

Wh-questions 1,2 and 3-word core frames

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

English German Russian

number of frames

3-word

2-word

1-word

4

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 30

• German and English:

wh word + aux/modal + pronoun/article/particle

• Russian:

wh word +/- particle

Prodrop, no articles, no copula in present tense

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 31

Modelling OI errors(Pine, Freudenthal, Gobet, Aguado-Orea)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 32

The AGR/TNS Omission Model

• Child’s grammar identical to adult’s except Child is subject to a Unique Checking Constraint that results in under-specification of Tense and/or Agreement

• Child uses non-finite verb forms in contexts where finite verbs forms obligatory

– That go there v That goes there (3sg present)

• Since AGR assigns NOM, child also produces Non-NOM subjects when AGR absent

– Him naughty, Her coming

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 33

Strengths of the ATOM

• Explains statistical patterns of error in English–He goes and He go, but few I goes–He goes, He go and Him go but few Him goes

• Explains why children learning other obligatory subject languages (e.g. Dutch, French) use infinitives in main clauses

–Hij lopen (He to walk) Il faire (He to do)

• Explains why children learning optional subject languages (e.g. Spanish) do not use infinitives in main clauses

–(El) habla (He speaks) not *(El) hablar (He to speak)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 34

MOSAICMOSAIC is a simple distributional learner that:• Learns utterance final words and sequences

– Do you want a biscuit? BiscuitA biscuitWant a

biscuit• Generates novel utterances by linking together

words that have been preceded and followed by overlapping sets of words and substituting them in utterance final sequences– a linked to the on basis of: Want a biscuit

Want the ball– allows: Want the biscuit

Eat a biscuitEat the biscuit

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 35

MOSAIC: Key Features

• Takes as input (orthographically transcribed) samples of Child-Directed Speech

• Produces output in the form of ‘utterances’ that can be compared with those of real children

• Learns to produce progressively longer utterances as a function of the amount of input it has seen

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 36

MOSAIC-Speak

ROTE LEARNED• DOESN’T FALL OUT • CHEEKY FACE• WHERE DO YOU WANT THEM TO GO?

• HOLD THE CASE THEN• TELL GRANDMA THEN• IT’S THE PHONE• WHICH FRIENDS ARE THEY THEN?

• GONNA WEE IN THE POTTY

GENERATED• MIGHT FALL OUT• CHEEKY FOOT • WHERE DO YOU WANT

HIM TO GO?• TAKE THE CASE THEN• SHOW GRANDMA THEN• IT’S A PHONE• WHICH FRIENDS IS HE THEN?

• GONNA WEE IN THE BALLOON

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 37

Method

• MOSAIC trained repeatedly on speech addressed to a particular child

• Output generated after each run through input• Output files selected on basis of MLU• Compared with samples of child speech matched as

closely as possible for MLU• Data from child and model coded for non-finites,

simple finites and compound finites using same (automated) coding procedures

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 38

Simulating differences in patterns of finiteness marking in Dutch, German and

Spanish

• Children modelled:– Peter - Gronigen Dutch corpus (Bols, 1995)– Leo - MPI German corpus (Behrens, in

press)– Juan - Nottingham Spanish corpus

(Aguado-Orea, 2004)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 39

Pattern of finiteness marking as a function of MLU for Peter and MOSAIC-Peter (Dutch)

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,5 2,2 3,1 4,1

Data for Peter

Non-finite

Simple Finite

CompoundFinite

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,4 2,1 2,7 4,1

Model of Peter

Non-finite

Simple Finite

CompoundFinite

MOSAIC simulates high proportion of OI errors in Dutch (and low proportion of compound finites)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 40

Pattern of finiteness marking as a function of MLU for Leo and MOSAIC-Leo (German)

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,3 2,2 3 3,8

Data for Leo

Non-finite

Simple Finite

CompoundFinite

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,4 2,3 3 4

Model of Leo

Non-finite

Simple Finite

CompoundFinite

MOSAIC simulates the moderately high proportion of OI errors in German (and low proportion of compound finites)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 41

Pattern of finiteness marking as a function of MLU for Juan and MOSAIC-Juan (Spanish)

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

2,2 2,9 3,8

Data for Juan

Non-finite

Simple Finite

CompoundFinite 0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

2,2 2,7 3,8

Model of Juan

Non-finite

Simple Finite

CompoundFinite

MOSAIC simulates the low proportion of OI errors in Spanish (and high proportion of simple finites)

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 42

OI errors as a function of compound finites in the input and percentage of utterance final verbs in the input that were finite vs. non-finite

OI errors at lowest MLU point (%)

Compound Finites in Input (%)

Utterance-final finite verbs (%)

Dutch 75 31 18

German 61 22 35

Spanish 18 25 74

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 43

Learning language in different cultures

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 44

Some claims made about language learning

• There are cultures in which children are not spoken to before they speak

Children only require minimal input to learn language ORChildren can learn language through overhearing

• There are cultures which believe children have to be taught language and corrected from ‘babytalk’

Children can learn language from a highly didactic interactive style

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 45

Intention reading andpreverbal communication

Distributional analysis:prosody phonemes words

Learning to talk

Form-meaning mappingsLinguisticuniversals

?

How does this relate to patterns of interaction with infants?

How much input is enough?

Learning patternsIdentifying slotsCreating paradigms Abstraction

?How does this relate to the amount and type of languagethat children hear?Communicative

Environment!!

Infant cognition

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 46

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 47

Our study

• Mostly outside• Many different

situations• Mother often absent• Many other children

Most previous studies

• Inside the house• Mother and child

playing• Only mother present• No other children

Comparing recording situations

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 48

Characterising children’s communicative environment

• How much do people talk to children? • How many people do children interact with?• What types of interaction take place?• How much do children react to what they overhear?

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 49

Data collectionINFANTS

2-3 hours per month

6m 8m 10m 12m 15m 18m 21m 24m

Dipkala

Saphal

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

TWO YEAR OLDS

3-4 hours per month

2;2 – 3;2 3;4 – 3;8

Khem

Kamala

Monthly

Monthly

Bi-monthly

Bi-monthly

THREE YEAR OLDS

3-4 hours per month

3;2 – 4;2 4;4 – 4;8

Kalpana

Man Kumar

Monthly

Monthly

Bi-monthly

Bi-monthly

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 50

Of the child/

To the child

Child Mother Father Other adult

Other child

Pointing

Offering

Object handling

Mutual gaze

Imitation

Teasing

Attention getting

Showing

Affection

Playing

Vocalisations per minute

Categories for characterising the communicative environment

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 51

Transcription and data analysis

• Transcribed into Chintang/Puma• Translated into Nepali• Transcription, Nepali, literal and idiomatic translations

into English entered on computer• Interlinearised linguistic gloss added on computer• Video and all transcriptions aligned and added to data

base archives in Nijmegen and at Tribuvhan University• Videos analysed for amount and type of talk to children

and for children’s communicative behaviour• Children’s language analysed for productivity in the

development of linguistic features of interest

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 52

Summary and conclusions

• Studying a wide variety gives us access to typological differences that have a bearing on fundamental theoretical issues

• Detailed studies within a language can allow a comparison between the role of different cues and markers

• Comparison across languages for the same functions can give us insight into what makes learning easy or difficult

• Virtually all children learn to talk: what are the characteristics of their communicative environments that make this possible?

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 53

The end!

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 54

3. Role of Distributed Morphemes

Past participle (w/ novel verb) = 2;6

E: Das Kind hat den Mann ..........C: Gemiekt!

Full utterance in Perfekt (w/ novel verb) = 3;6

E: Das Kind miekt den MannC: Das Kind hat den Mann gemiekt

Wittek & Tomasello (2002)Journal of Child Language

German Perfekt (w/ novel verb):children at 2;6 and 3;6

Slobin onlocal cues

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 55

German Perfekt (w/ novel verb):children at 2;6 and 3;6

E: Das Kind miekt den MannC: Das Kind hat den Mann gemiekt

E: Das Kind tammtC: Das Kind ist getammen

Sein (ist) form productive later because lower type frequency (fewer verbs)

2. Role of Type Frequency

Wittek & Tomasello (2002)Journal of Child Language

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 56

The people and the languages

• Highly endangered languages, but nearly completely undocumented.

• Spoken in the lower foothills of the Himalayas. • Rai ethnic group.• Rai culture:

– Sedentary subsistence farmers. – Extremely high degree of social compartmentalisation, where

each household is a political unit.– The social system is largely identical with kinship system. – Shamanist ancestral worship with various degrees of Hindu and

Buddhist influence.– Mixed with Nepali speakers and other ethnic groups, but marriage

only within the culture.

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 57

The languagesIndo-European Sino-Tibetan

Tibet-BurmanSinitic

Indo-Aryan Balto-Savic Germanic Italo-Celtic etc. Kiranti Bodish Lolo-Burmese etc.

Hindi Nepali etc. Central Kiranti Eastern Kiranti etc.

Chintang LimbuPuma BelhareBantawa Yakkha Camling etc.etc.

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 58

Language acquisition projects

1. The balance between Chintang and Nepali in children’s language development

2. Learning the special features of a Rai language

3. Documenting the communicative environment in which children learn to talk

LOT 4: 16-20 jan06 59

Chintang VDC

• Chintang VDC has 9 – 10,000 people

• Mulgau – one of three hamlets in which Chintang is spoken as a native language– 85 households– 510 people

• With the help of the local assistants (studying B.Ed. on the Dhankuta campus), we identified 6 families who were prepared to let us film their children every month.