early child utterances. sentence formulas children’s early utterance are sentence formulas that...
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Sentence formulas
Children’s early utterance are sentence formulas that
describe a limited number of (semantically defined)
situation types.
(Brown 1973; Schlesinger 1974)
Sentence formulas
Daddy cookie. [= Daddy is eating a cookie]
Kendall spider. [= Kendall is looking at a spider]
Adam book. [= Adam is reading a book]
Daddy door. [= Daddy is closing the door]
agent - patient
Sentence formulas
Children’s early utterances are organized on
semantic grounds. Grammatical relations and
syntactic structure emerge only later.
(Schlesinger 1974)
More car. 1;11
More that. 2;0
More cookie. 2;0
More fish. 2;1
More jump. 2;1
More Peter water. 2;4
Item-based constructions
Block get-it. 2;3Bottle get-it. 2;3Spoon get-it. 2;4Towel get-it. 2;4Dog get-it. 2;4Books get-it. 2;5
Item-based constructions
Spoon back. 2;2Tiger back. 2;3Give back. 2;3Ball back. 2;3Want ball back. 2;4
Item-based constructions
More __ .
__ get-it.
__ back.
Children’s early multi-word utterances are lexically
specific. [Tomasello 2000]
Item-based constructions
Clock on there. 2;2Up on there. 2;2Hot in there. 2;2Milk in there. 2;4Water in there 2;5
Item-based constructions
All broke. 2;0All buttened. 2;3All clean. 2;4All done. 2;4All gone milk. 2;2All gone shoe. 2;2All gone juice. 2;2All gone bear. 2;3
Item-based constructions
Dat Daddy. 2;0Dat’s Weezer. 2;0Dat my chair. 2;1Dat’s him. 2;1Dat’s a paper too. 2;4That’s too little for me. 2;9
Item-based constructions
The generative view
Adam book = Adam is reading a book.
Adam (is) read(ing) (a) book.
N AUX V DET N
VP
S
NP NPVP
Pivot grammar
Martin Braine (1963): Children’s early utterances
are composed of words from two word classes:
1. pivot words
2. open class words
Pivot grammar
Pivot words:
• Spatial particles up, off, back• Pronouns/deictics that, it• Possessives my, your• Certain verbs put, take, see• Certain adjectives big, pretty• Relational expressions other, more, allgone
Pivot grammar
Four sentence types:
1. O Daddy
2. P + O That cat.
3. O + P Book back.
4. O + O Adam book.
Pivot grammar
P + O
See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon
Pivot grammar
P + O O + P
See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon
Shoe offShirt offDaddy doMommy doBlanket awayDaddy away.
Pivot grammar
P + O O + P O + O
See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon
Shoe offShirt offDaddy doMommy doBlanket awayDaddy away.
Mommy sleepMilk cupBaby sit.
Construction Grammar
Grammar consists of form-function pairings, i.e. constructions.
A construction is a complex linguistic sign that combines a specific form with a particular meaning.
Passive Construction
(1) The meal was cooked by John.
(2) Mary was hit by the car.
(3) The ball was kicked by Peter.
(4) The book was written by John.
NP be V-ed by NP
PA verb AG
Caused-motion Construction
(1) She dragged the child into the car.
(2) He wiped the mud off his shoes.
(3) She forced the ball into the jar.
(4) He pushed the book down the chute.
NP V NP PP
<X causes Y to move somewhere>
(5) She sneezed the napkin of the table.
Resultative Construction
(1) Peter meeked the bleek dizzy.
NP V NP ADJ
<X changes Y such Y becomes Z>
Transitive Grammar
(1) Peter hit Mary.
(2) Peter kicked the horse.
(3) Peter pressed the button.
(4) Peter pushed the elephant.
NP V NP
<X affected Y>
Item-specific constructions help to bridge the gap between rote learning and grammatical development.
Item-based constructions
First words
MommyDoggyAllgonegoodbye
Item-specific constructions
More __ .__ allgone.__ back.
Schematic constructions
NP V NP PP
X moves Y somewhere
Item-based constructions
Item-specific constructions help to bridge the gap between word learning (=route learning) and grammatical development (=system building).
Item-based constructions
They involve both object similarity and structural similarity.
Similarity
Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object
similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre
Gentner 1983)
Word learning involves object similarity (=recognition
of the same phonetic substance).
Grammatical development involves relational
similarity (=recognition of relationship between words
and categories).
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? (experimenter points to the car)That’s right, the car is going to get meeked.The car is going to get meeked by who? (eperimenter points to Big Bird)Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird. (while performing action)Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird? (experimenter points to the car)Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird.
Item-based constructions
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? (experimenter points to Big Bird)
That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car.
Big Bird is going to meek what? (experimenter points to the car)
Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car. (while performing action)
Did you see who meeked the car? (experimenter points to Big Bird)
Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car.
Item-based constructions
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
85 5
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
85 5
What is the AGENT doing?
45 15
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training Active training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
85 5
What is the AGENT doing?
45 15 0 100
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training Active training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
85 5 12 88
What is the AGENT doing?
45 15 0 100
Brooks and Tomasello 1999
Passive training Active training
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
Passiveresponse
Activeresponse
What happened tothe PATIENT?
85 5 12 88
What is the AGENT doing?
45 15 0 100