bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Reanalysing rote-learned phrases: individual differences in the transition to multi-word speech
Authors: Fine Julian M. , Lieven Elena V. M. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe present study investigates the possibility that the previously documented relationship between referential–expressive and nominal–pronominal styles (Nelson, 1975) may be best explained not so much in terms of ‘object-orientation’ or ‘noun-preference’, as in terms of the direction from which different children break into structure, with some children tending to construct patterns by combining two or more items from their single-word vocabularies and others tending to develop patterns by gaining productive control over ‘slots’ in previously unanalysed phrases. In order to do so it makes use of a methodology for distinguishing between productive and unanalysed multi-word speech proposed in Lieven, Pine & Dresner-Barnes (1992) which is applied to observational and maternal-report data from a longitudinal study of seven children between the ages of 0; 11 and 1; 8. The results suggest not only that variation in children's early word combinations can indeed be explained in terms of different routes to multi-word speech, but also that, far from being atypical, a strategy involving the breaking down of originally unanalysed phrases may be used by all children, though to varying degrees.
Event knowledge and early language acquisition
Authors: Farrar Michael Jeffrey , Friend Margaret J. , Forbes James N. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe role of event knowledge in early language acquisition was investigated. Thirteen two-year-olds were observed interacting with their mothers over a five-week period. During weekly observational sessions, dyads interacted in both a familiar-event context and an unfamiliar-event context. Events were represented by complex toys (e.g. airport, marina, etc.). In the familiar-event, dyads interacted with the same event-toy during each observation period. In the unfamiliar-event, these same dyads interacted with a different novel toy during each observation period. The results indicated that children's increasing event knowledge facilitated their language development. Specifically, children's lexical type use, action verb use, and MLU increased in the familiar-event, but remained unchanged in the unfamiliar-event. Event knowledge also facilitated children's lexical token use. Results are discussed in terms of the role of event knowledge in language acquisition.
On the origins of denial negation
Authors: Hummer Peter , Wimmer Heinz , Antes Gertraud 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThese are the principal questions of this study: are the early fonctions of negation, such as REJECTION, and the later emerging DENIAL no developmentally related? And when do children start to deny? So far, evidence for the questions at hand has been almost exclusively observational. We decided on a simple elicitation procedure instead, asking 48 children (ages between 1;1 and 2;7) easy yes/no-questions. The most likely age range for the appearance of denial no was 1;8–2;1. Its error-free acquisition supports the continuity theory of negation development, which holds that essentials of denial no carry over from the earlier fonctions of no. Finally an attempt is made to account for the beginnings of denial in terms of semantics and the representational theory of child cognition.
Marking of verb transitivity by Hebrew-speaking children
Authors: Berman Ruth A. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe study examines children's command of transitivity permutations in Hebrew, where a change in verb-argument syntax entails a change in verb-morphology. 30 children aged two, three and eight were required to produce existing and novel Hebrew verbs differing in transitivity. Younger children showed a good grasp of the syntax and semantics, but not the morphological marking of transitivity, three-year-olds did much better, and eight-year-olds produced mainly adultlike responses. Results were higher on existing verbs than on novel forms. Direction of change had little effect with existing verbs, but with novel verbs success was much higher in changing intransitive to transitive forms than the converse. Some alternations proved easier than others, e.g. intransitive activity verbs in the basic pa'al verb-pattern yielded more causative hif'il forms than intransitive inchoative verbs in the nif'al pattern. Findings throw light on the development of derivational morphology, item-based versus class-based learning, and the impact of lexical productivity and language-particular properties on acquisition.
Remembered voices
Authors: Ely Richard , McCabe Allyssa 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe speech children spontaneously quote was examined in two studies. In Study 1, a corpus of personal narratives from 96 children aged 4;0 to 9;0 was analysed; Study 2 investigated reported speech in 25 younger children aged 1;2 to 5;2 interacting with their parents. In both studies, the frequency of reported speech increased with age. Direct quotation was more common than indirect or summarized quotation at all ages. In Study 1, children quoted themselves more frequently than any other speaker, and their mothers more frequently than their fathers. Directives were the most commonly reported speech act from the distant past in both older (Study 1) and younger (Study 2) children. In Study 1, girls used reported speech more frequently than did boys, and their quotations were more direct in form than were those of boys.
Speech-like vocalizations in infancy: an evaluation of potential risk factors
Authors: Oller D. Kimbrough , Eilers Rebecca E. , Steffens Michele L. , Lynch Michael P. , Urbano Richard 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThis work reports longitudinal evaluation of the speech-like vocal development of infants born at risk due to prematurity or low socio-economic status (SES) and infants not subject to such risk. Twenty infants were preterm (10 of low SES) and 33 were full term (16 of low SES), and all were studied from 0;4 through 1;6. The study provides the indication that at-risk infants are not generally delayed in the ability to produce well-formed speech-like sounds as indicated in taperecorded vocal samples. At the same time, premature infants show a tendency to produce well-formed syllables less consistently than full terms after the point at which parents and laboratory personnel note the onset of the canonical babbling stage (the point after which well-formed syllables are well established in the infant vocal repertoires). Further, even though low SES infants produce well-formed speech-like structures on schedule, they show a reliably lower tendency to vocalize in general, as reflected by fewer utterances per minute in recorded samples.
Early object labels: the case for a developmental lexical principles framework
Authors: Golinkoff Roberta Michnick , Mervis Carolyn B. , Hirsh-Pasek Kathryn 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTUniversally, object names make up the largest proportion of any word type found in children's early lexicons. Here we present and critically evaluate a set of six lexical principles (some previously proposed and some new) for making object label learning a manageable task. Overall, the principles have the effect of reducing the amount of information that language-learning children must consider for what a new word might mean. These principles are constructed by children in a two-tiered developmental sequence, as a function of their sensitivity to linguistic input, contextual information, and social-interactional cues. Thus, the process of lexical acquisition changes as a result of the particular principles a given child has at his or her disposal. For children who have only the principles of the first tier (REFERENCE, EXTENDIBILITY, and OBJECT SCOPE), word learning has a deliberate and laborious look. The principles of the second tier (CATEGORICAL SCOPE, NOVEL NAME – NAMELESS CATEGORY’ or N3C, and CONVENTIONALITY) enable the child to acquire many new labels rapidly. The present unified account is argued to have a number of advantages over treating such principles separately and non-developmentally. Further, the explicit recognition that the acquisition and operation of these principles is influenced by the child's interpretation of both linguistic and non-linguistic input is seen as an advance.
Sensitivity of children's inflection to grammatical structure
Authors: Kim John J. , Marcus Gary F. , Pinker Steven , Hollander Michelle , Coppola Marie 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTWhat is the input to the mental System that computes inflected forms likewalked, came, dogs, andmen? Recent connectionist models feed a word's phonological features into a single network, allowing it to generalize both regular and irregular phonological patterns, likestop-stopped, step-steppedandfling-flung, cling-clung. But for adults, phonological input is insufficient: verbs derived from nouns likering the cityalways have regular past tense forms (ringed), even if they are phonologically identical to irregular verbs (ring the bell). Similarly, nouns based on names, liketwo Mickey Mouses, and compounds based on possessing rather than being their root morpheme, such astwo sabertooths, take regular plurals, even when they are homophonous with irregular nouns likemiceandteeth. In four experiments, testing 70 three- to ten-year-old children, we found that children are sensitive to such nonphonological information: they were more likely to produce regular inflected forms for forms liketo ring(‘to put a ring on’) andsnaggletooth(a kind of animal doll with big teeth) than for their homophonous irregular counterparts, even when these counterparts were also extended in meaning. Children's inflectional Systems thus seem to be like adults': irregular forms are tied to the lexicon but regular forms are computed by a default rule, and words are represented as morphological tree structures reflecting their derivation from basic word roots. Such structures, which determine how novel complex words are derived and interpreted, also govern whether words with irregular sound patterns will be regularized: a word can be irregular only if its structure contains an irregular root in ‘head’ position, allowing the lexically stored irregular information to percolate up to apply to the word as a whole. In all other cases, the inflected form is computed by a default regular rule. This proposal fits the facts better than alternatives appealing to ambiguity reduction or semantic similarity to a word's central sense. The results, together with an analysis of adult speech to children, suggest that morphological structure and a distinction between mechanisms for regular and irregular inflection may be inherent to the design of children's language Systems.
Exploring the boundary between syntax and pragmatics: relevance and the binding of pronouns
Authors: Foster-Cohen Susan H. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the interface between syntax and pragmatics, focusing on the binding of pronouns and the pragmatics of the paradigms used to test this aspect of syntactic knowledge. Reinhart's (1986) version of Binding Theory (which accords a specific role to pragmatics in processes of pronoun resolution) and Sperber & Wilson's (1986) Theory of Relevance are used to examine the syntax and pragmatics of pronoun interpretation. A set of predictions based on Relevance Theory are evaluated against published results of tests of Binding Theory. The paper concludes that Relevance Theory provides a means of understanding constraints on testing syntactic knowledge and argues that pragmatic factors must be systematically controlled in any evaluation of syntactic knowledge.
Why do infants begin to talk? Language as an unintended consequence
Authors: Locke John L. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTScholars have addressed a range of questions about language development, but for some reason have neglected to ask why infants begin to talk. Biologists often prefer ‘how’ to ‘why’ questions, but it is possible to ask about the immediate consequences of developing behaviours – an acceptable strategy for attacking causation – and psycholinguists can study the immediate consequences to the infant of behaviours that lead to linguistic competence. This process is demonstrated with a series of illustrative proposals as to the short- and long-term consequences of vocal learning and utterance storage, two developmental phases that lead to talking, as well as the act of talking itself. The goal is to encourage investigation of behavioural dispositions that nudge the child, by degrees, towards proficiency in the use of spoken language.
Pointing and social awareness: declaring and requesting in the second year
Authors: Franco Fabia , Butterworth George 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe production of pointing and other gestures (e.g. reaching or indicative gestures) by 47 infants aged 1; 0 to 1; 6 was investigated in two experiments contrasting declarative-referential vs. imperative-instrumental conditions of communication. A further group of seven infants aged 0; 10 was examined in order to highlight pre-pointing transitional phenomena. Data analyses concerned gestures and associated vocalizations and visual checking with a social partner. Results show that gestures are produced differentially in the experimental conditions: while reaching is only produced in imperative-instrumental contexts, pointing is characteristic of declarative-referential contexts. The pattern of visual checking with the social partner also differentiates gestures; moreover, it shows developmental changes in the case of pointing. Results suggest that pointing relies on some awareness of ‘psychological’ processes (e.g. attention and sharing) in the other and the self, and that it is this which may account for the specific relevance of pointing for language development.
Ties between lexical and grammatical development: evidence from early-talkers
Authors: Thal Donna J. , Bates Elizabeth , Zappia Mary Jane , Oroz Melinda 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTCase studies are presented for two linguistically precocious children (early-talkers) aged 1;9 and 1;5, one of whom represents a striking dissociation between vocabulary size and mean length of utterance. Each early-talker is compared to controls in the same language stage; 10 in Early Stage I (mean age 1; 7) and 10 in Stage II (mean age 2; 3). Data are explored to determine if the dissociation is best characterized as one between grammar and semantics, or a difference in cognitive style. Results showed that the child who used mostly single words produced high proportions of predicates and bound and closed class grammatical morphemes, providing no evidence of a dissociation between grammar and semantics. Results also failed to support a clear contrast between analytic and holistic processing, although partial support was found for some predictions based on cognitive style. A unifying account is proposed that considers differences in auditory short term memory, a factor which could affect the size of the linguistic unit that children can store, manipulate, and/or retrieve at a particular point in development.
Syntactic categories in the speech of young children: the case of the determiner
Authors: Pine Julian M. , Martindale Helen 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThere has been a growing trend in recent years towards the attribution of adult-like syntactic categories to young language-learning children. This is based, at least in part, on studies which claim to have found positive evidence for syntactic phrase structure categories in young children's speech. However, these claims contradict the findings of previous research which suggest that the categories underlying children's early multi-word speech are much more limited in scope. The present study represents an attempt to reconcile the findings of these different lines of research by focusing specifically on Valian's (1986) criteria for attributing the syntactic category of determiner to young children. The aim is, firstly, to replicate Valian's results regarding her determiner criteria on a new sample of seven children between the ages of 1;20 and 2;6; secondly, to investigate the extent to which children show overlap in the contexts in which they use different determiner types; and, thirdly, to compare this with a controlled measure of the overlap shown by competent adult speakers. The results suggest that Valian's criteria for attributing a syntactic determiner category are too generous and could be passed by children with a relatively small amount of limited scope knowledge. They also provide at least some evidence that a limited scope formula account of children's early determiner use may fit the data better than an adult-like syntactic account.
Categorization and feature specification in phonological acquisition
Authors: Gierut Judith A. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTDistinctive feature specification and representation in phonological acquisition are examined in the context of underspecification theory. Subjects were 30 children (aged 3;1 to 5;10) who exhibited systematic differences in their linguistic knowledge of target phonological contrasts. A free classification task was used to tap children's conceptual knowledge of these contrasts, with features of place and manner experimentally manipulated. Three questions were addressed: which features do children use to categorize segmentai information, do the defining features of a category shift as the phonological system advances, and which framework of underspecification theory best accounts for the results? All children categorized segments on the basis of marked nonredundant featural properties, and used only one feature value to define category membership consistent with radical underspecification. Linguistic knowledge and linguistic input both influenced children's category judgements, but to different degrees. The emergence of phonological categories involved increasing feature differentiation as the child's productive phonology advanced.
Preschool boys and girls usenodifferently
Authors: Nohara Michiko 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTTwenty-one videotape recorded interactions of 42 preschool children (aged 3;4 to 5;3) in same-sexed dyads were coded and analysed to see how these children used the wordnoin their interactions. Results showed that while boys and girls used the wordnoequally frequently, they were found to use the word in different ways. A trend for boys to usenowhen correcting or prohibiting their playmate's behaviour more often than girls was revealed. Girls were more likely to provide reasons for denying or rejecting their playmate's proposition or suggestion. The overall findings of this study are comparable to previously reported results indicating that males and females employ different styles of speech in order to accomplish the same goal. However, unlike most studies conducted on language and sex, this study offers a unique approach in that it examines how boys and girls use a word that occurs equally frequently in their vocabulary to accomplish different goals.
Identifying formulas in first language acquisition
Authors: Hickey Tina 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTWith the increase in interest in formulas, or apparently non-productive utterances in children's speech, a range of definitions has emerged and sometimes conflicting criteria have been proposed for their identification. These definitions of formulas are compared, and the criteria of Brown (1973), Wong Fillmore (1976), Peters (1983) and Plunkett (1990) for the recognition of formulas are reviewed. A preference rule System is proposed, which distinguishes necessary, typical and graded conditions for the recognition of formulas. Using these conditions, some of the formulas found in the data of one child acquiring Irish between 1;4 and 2;1 are examined. Issues such as length of units, frequency of occurrence and appropriateness of use are discussed. The methods developed in this study could be used to assess the importance of formulas in the language acquisition of other children.
Lexical segmentation and vocabulary growth in early language acquisition
Authors: Plunkett Kim 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe identification of appropriate lexical segmentations of the speech signal constitutes a problem for the language learner and the child language researcher alike. Articulatory precision and fluency criteria for identifying formulaic expressions, sub-lexical forms and target lexemes in linguistic productions are defined and applied to the analysis of two Danish children's language development between the ages of 1;0 and 2;0. The results of this analysis are compared to the results of applying standard distributional and frequency criteria in the tabulation of mean length of utterance and vocabulary profiles for both standard and nonstandard lexical segmentations. It is argued that although the two methods yield converging profiles of development during the latter part of the period studied, articulatory precision and fluency criteria offer a more powerful tool for identifying alternative segmentation strategies in early language acquisition. Profiles of vocabulary development for these two children suggest that the solution to the segmentation problem may be an important trigger for their vocabulary spurts.
Nouns in early lexicons: evidence, explanations and implications
Authors: Nelson Katherine , Hampson June , Shaw Lea Kessler 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTMany theories of grammatical and lexical acquisition assume that children learn predominantly nouns, and specifically names of objects, when they first begin to acquire words in the second year. We show that the noun bias in early vocabularies is far from universal, and that it rests only in part on the acquisition of object names. An analysis of vocabulary composition from 45 children at 1;8 indicates that more nouns are acquired than all other word classes, but that of the nouns acquired only about half are the names of basic level object classes (BLOCS). An examination of the use of nouns in mother-child discourse shows that non-object words referencing locations, actions and events, for example, are used in distinctive pragmatic and grammatical contexts which might enable a child to grasp the word's use and eventually its meaning. It is concluded that a theory of lexical acquisition in discourse context is required to explain word learning at all levels and for all word types. Implications for semantic bootstrapping theories are considered.
An appearance-function shift in children's object naming
Authors: Merriman William E. , Scott Paul D. , Marazita John 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe relative importance of appearance and potential function in children's object naming was examined. Potential function is an object capability that may not be currently realized (e.g. an empty mug has the potential to hold coffee). In Study 1, sixteen children from each of three age groups (3;8, 4;8, and 6;1) were taught novel names for unfamiliar objects; they then had to decide whether these applied to items that resembled the training objects in either appearance or potential function. The youngsters were also shown deceptive objects (e.g., an eraser that looked like a pencil) and had to choose between familiar appearance and function names for them (e.g.,penciloreraser). The frequency of function-based responding in both tasks increased with age. In Study 2, the name training procedure was revised so that equal emphasis was given to both apparent and functional features. The main results of the first study were replicated. Neither study obtained evidence of a strong relation between the appearance—function shift and increased under-standing of the appearance—reality distinction.