Transcript History of the English Language

The acquisition of simple
sentences
One-word utterances / holophrases
Daddy.
[Adam 1;4]
Mommy.
[Adam 1;4]
Doggy.
[Adam 1;5]
Goodbye.
[Adam 1;5]
Allgone.
[Adam 1;6]
One-word utterances / holophrases
Children‘s early one-word utterances are speech
acts.
There is no distinction between words and
sentences at this stage.
Sequences of one-word utterances
The child and her father are sitting at a table. The
father is cutting peaches into pieces. After eating
two pieces of peach, the child wants another one.
CHILD:
CHILD:
CHILD:
Peach. Daddy. (Child picks up the spoon)
Spoon. (Child gives both peach and spoon
to her father)
Daddy. Peach. Cut.
Sequences of one-word utterances
The child pretends to cook something on a toy stove.
CHILD:
MOTHER:
CHILD:
Cook. Baby.
Is the baby cooking?
Pot. Meat.
Fundamental frequencies nonfinal words
Duration of nonfinal words
(polysyllabic words)
Duration of nonfinal words
(polysyllabic words)
Sequences of single words
There is evidence that sequences of single words
are often planned as single units.
1. intonation
2. duration
3. pauses
Sentence formulas
Agent and action
Kendall swim.
Kimmy come.
Doggie bark.
Pillow fall.
Agent and patient
Daddy cookie.
Kendall spider.
Adam book.
Daddy door.
[Daddy is eating a cookie]
[Kendall is looking at a spider]
[Adam is reading a book]
[Daddy is closing the door]
Sentence formulas
Action and patient
Hit ball.
Put book.
Drink milk.
Eat apple.
Action and location
Play bed.
Sit pool.
Walk street.
Come here.
Sentence formulas
Entity and location
Book table.
Sweater chair.
Ball floor.
Possessor and possessed
Kimmy bike.
Daddy shoe.
Adam foot.
[That is Kimmy’s bike]
[That is daddy’s shoe]
[That is Adam’s foot]
Sentence formulas
Modifier and object
Big train.
Red train.
Hot milk.
Negation and object/action
No milk.
No water.
No play.
Sentence formulas
Focus and object
That doggy.
It cat.
There ball.
This my spoon.
Question word and (pro)noun
What dat?
Who dat?
Where doggy?
Sentence formulas
1. Children’s early utterances are grounded in the
conceptualization of basic situations.
2. The acquisition of meaning precedes the
acquisition of structure.
Pivot grammar
Martin Braine (1963; 1976): Children’s
grammar consists of two types of words:
(1) pivot words
(2) open class words
Pivot grammar
Pivot words:
Spatial particles
Pronouns/deictics
Possessives
Certain verbs
Certain adjectives
Other relational terms
up, off, back
that, it
my, your
put, take, see
big, pretty
other, more, allgone, bye-bye
Pivot grammar
O
P+O
O+P
O+O
Daddy
Hi
Byebye
See boy
See sock
Pretty boat
Pretty fan
My Mommy
My milk
Allgone shoe
Allgone egg
More taxi
More melon
Shoe off
Shirt off
Daddy do
Mommy do
Blanket away
Daddy away.
Mommy
sleep
Milk cup
Baby sit.
Pivot grammar
Pivot grammar rules (Braine 1963):
→O
S→P+O
S→O+P
S→ O+O
S
Daddy
That cat.
Book back.
Adam book.
Constructivist approach
Dat Daddy.
Dat’s Weezer.
Dat my chair.
Dat’s him.
Dat’s a paper too.
That’s too little for me.
2;0
2;0
2;1
2;1
2;4
2;9
More car.
More that.
More cookie.
More fish.
More jump.
More Peter water.
1;11
2;0
2;0
2;1
2;1
2;4
Constructivist approach
No bed.
No bread.
No eat.
No milk.
No apple juice.
1;11
2;0
2;2
2;2
2;5
Block get-it.
Bottle get-it.
Mama get-it.
Towel get-it.
Dog get-it.
Books get-it.
2;3
2;3
2;4
2;4
2;4
2;5
Constructivist approach
Boot off.
Light off.
Hands off.
Pants off.
Hat off.
2;0
2;1
2;1
2;1
2;3
Spoon back.
Tiger back.
Give back.
Ball back.
Want ball back.
2;2
2;3
2;3
2;3
2;4
Constructivist approach
Clock on there.
Up on there.
Hot in there.
Milk in there.
Water in there
2;2
2;2
2;2
2;4
2;5
All broke.
All buttened.
All clean.
All done.
2;0
2;3
2;4
2;4
Constructivist approach
All gone milk.
All gone shoe.
All gone juice.
All gone bear.
2;2
2;2
2;2
2;3
Constructivist approach
How do we characterize these utterances?
• They have meaning.
• They have structure.
• They do not have the structure of adult grammar.
• They are organized around concrete words.
Constructivist approach
Brooks and Tomasello (1999)
2,0-3;0-year olds
meeking = pushing a
car-like vehicle up a
slope.
Constructivist approach
Active condition
Look, Big Bird is going to meek something.
Big Bird is going to meek the car.
Who’s going to meek the car? (pointing to Big Bird)
That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car.
Big Bird is going to meek what? (pointing to the car)
Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car.
Did you see who meeked the car?
Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car.
Constructivist approach
Passive condition
Look, the car is going to get meeked.
The car is going to get meeked by Big Bird.
What’s going to get meeked? (pointing to the car)
That’s right, the car is going to get meeked.
The car is going to get meeked by who? (pointing to Big Bird)
Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird.
Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird?
Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird.
Constructivist approach
1. What did the AGENT (e.g. child) do?
2. What happened to the PATIENT (e.g. car)?
Constructivist approach
Active training
Passive
response
Active
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
12
88
What is the
AGENT doing?
0
100
Constructivist approach
Active training
Passive training
Passive
response
Active
response
Passive
response
Active
response
What happened to
the PATIENT?
12
88
85
5
What is the
AGENT doing?
0
100
45
15
Constructivist approach
AG VERB PA
beater BEAT x
hitter hit x
PA is VERB-ed by AG
pusher PUSH x
x is BEATEN by beater
Constructivist approach
Lexically-specific constructions help the child to
bridge the gap between rote-learning and system
building.
Similarity
Similarity
Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object
similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre
Gentner 1983)