1 Rutgers Forum for Language Acquisition November 5, 2002.
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Influence of Context on Verbal Inflection:
An experimental study with Spanish-speaking children
María Blume
Cornell University
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1. Introduction
What do children know about the interface between Pragmatics and Grammar? Pragmatics = Context Grammar = Tense and Aspect Verbal Inflection
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Examples(1) Adult: ¿Qué hace?
What do-Present-3-sg 'What does it do/ what is it doing?'
Child: Nadando Swim-Present Participle 'Swimming'
(2) Adult: ¿Qué estás haciendo? What be-Present-2-sg do-PP 'What are you doing?'
Child: Jugar. Play-Infinitive 'Lit. To play/ Playing'
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2. Pragmatics:Use of language in context.
Communication: 2 important aspectsDecodingInterpretation
Interpretation. Example:(3) Can you open the window?
Usual pragmatics studies look at issues like politeness, requesting, etc.
Examples from Sperber & Wilson (1995: 10) 6
2.1 Decoding : The missing information problem
But pragmatics also deals with filling in the gaps needed for correct decoding. Pragmatic context (the situation) is necessary to find the right referents.
(4) I'll come tomorrow.•I who?•come where?•tomorrow what date?
(5) Betsy's gift made her very happy•Betsy who?•her who?
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But in other cases, like in (6) which is equivalent to Spanish sentence (1), the context is necessary to understand the meaning of the sentence itself
(6) Speaker 1: What is the doggy doing?Speaker 2: Swimming.
Swimming who, when?(person & number features plus tense features)
Note that this answer is ungrammatical in isolation
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These answers require an interaction between
morphosyntax and discourse. Their missing tense and aspect features have
to be recovered from the preceding question. A Spanish-speaking child has to realize that
although Spanish grammar requires most verbs to be inflected, the inflection can be dropped in particular cases such as these, in which the discourse context crucially provides the missing information.
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3. Why Spanish?(7) Question:¿Qué está haciendo el perro?What is doing the dog?'What is the dog doing?'
Possible answers:A: está comiendo is eating 'it is eating’B: come eats 'it eats'
C: comiendoeating‘eating’
D: comerto-eatto eat
comiendo 'eating' Missing person, number & tense features.
comer 'to eat' Missing person, number, tense & aspect features.
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3.1 Ambiguity of Imperfect aspect problem
Imperfect aspect forms in Spanish can have two different interpretations:(8) Question: ¿Qué hace el perro?
What does the dog?
'What does the dog do?'
Habitual: What does the dog usually do? (√ English) Ongoing activity: What is the dog doing?
(X English).
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Questions in Spanish and their possible answers: Progressive questions
Ongoing activity (Now) ¿Qué está haciendo el perro? --> √
A. Come --> X B. Está comiendo --> √ C. Comiendo --> √ D. Comer --> X
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Questions in Spanish and their possible answers: Imperfect
questions Ongoing activity (Now)
¿Qué hace el perro?--> X A. Come --> X B. Está comiendo --> √ C. Comiendo --> √ D. Comer --> X
Habitual activity (Usually)
¿Qué hace el perro? A. Come --> √ D. Comer --> X
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4. What does the child need to know to produce these answers? This is a question, it requires an
answer. Meaning of verbs. Which is the form of the verbs in
Spanish: root + TV cant-a Which of these formal features are
realized in Spanish. (Person, number, tense, aspect)
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Where are they realized?Imperfect forms: all in the main
verb• Tú com-e-s
Progressive tenses: person, number and tense on the auxiliary, aspect on the main verb.
• Tú est-á-s com-ie-ndo In what order: first tense-aspect, 2nd
person-number
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Which particular morphemes correspond to the formal features in Spanish.
When can you forget all this and drop features, i.e., use an Infinitive or a Present Participle.
When you use a non-finite form , the subject of the utterance has to be null, as in (9)
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(9) Question: ¿Qué está haciendo el perro?
'What is the dog doing?'Answer C: comiendo √
'eating'Answer C': él comiendo X
'it eating’Answer D: comer √
'to eat’Answer D': él comer X
'he to eat'
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5. Influence of Context in the Answer’s Meaning When the question is ambiguous (Present
Imperfect and Past Imperfect) What is the effect of the context?
Discourse context: The preceding question Referential context: Story book (which showed
the characters doing the activities so it favored an ongoing-activity interpretation).
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6. Method: 2 experiments. Elicited Imitation and Elicited Production All experiments were administered orally. Subjects
27 children, ages from 2 years 1 month to 3 years 11 months.
14 adults (adults did Grammaticality Judgment instead of Elicited Imitation)
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6.1 Elicited Imitation: Discourse Context Only
The child heard a question and an answer and was asked to imitate the answer exactly as the experimenter said it.
Children imitate exactly the structures they have acquired, and change the structures they have not yet acquired.
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To imitate a sentence, the child, has to process it, understand it, save it in his/her memory and produce it.(10) Adult: The red beads (Ø) and brown beads
are here.
Child: Brown beads here an' a red beads here
(2;03;03)
(11) Adult: The owl eats candy and (Ø) runs fast.
Child: Owl eat candy…owl eat the candy and…he run fast (2;04;03).
Slobin and Welsh (1973)
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My experiment: Pretraining session: The game was called el juego del
lorito (‘the parrot game’). Animals sounds. What kind of does sound the parrot
make? Do you want to be the parrot? The puppet. The child heard a question, by the puppet, and an
answer, by the experimenter, and was asked to repeat the answer.
The child heard the target utterance at most twice.
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Video 1
Scoring Correct or Incorrect Imitation If the imitation was incorrect, what did the child
change?
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Results for Elicited Imitation: Incorrect Imitation of
ProgressiveImitation of Answers to Imperfect Questions
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Imperfect Progressive Present Participle Infinitive
Answers
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Imitation of Answers to Progressive Questions
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Imperfect Progressive Present Participle Infinitve
Answers
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Interpretation
They can produce all answers Imperfect = Come ‘eats’ Progressive = Está comiendo ‘is eating’ Present Participle = Comiendo ‘eating’ Infinitive = Comer ‘to eat’
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Adult results:
Answers Judged Correct for Imperfect Questions.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Imperfect Progressive Present Participle Infinitive
Answers
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Answers Judged Correct for Progressive Questions
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Imperfect Progressive Present Participle Infinitive
Answers
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Comparing adults and children.
Adults show an effect for discourse context. Imperfect Questions: Both Imperfect and
Progressive are high.Present Participles are low.
Progressive Questions: Imperfect declines. Present Participle increases.
Infinitives are accepted with all types of questions.
Children do not show effect for type of question.
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Why don’t they imitate the Progressive well?
They are changing it to Present Participle Question: What is the hen doing? Answer: She is sweeping. Child’s Imitation: Sweeping
These forms seem to be equivalent for them.
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Examples
(12) E: ¿qué hace la vaca?
'What does the cow do?/What is the cow doing?’
E: está cantando.'(it) is singing’
Child: cantando. (AJ091295, 3;00;12)
'singing'
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(13) E: ¿qué estaba haciendo el pollito?
'what was the chicken doing?’
E: hablando.
'talking’
Child: hablando estaba (CC090996, 3;10;25)
'lit: (it) talking was/(it) was talking’
(14) E: ¿qué hace la oveja?
'what does the sheep do?/What is the sheep doing?’
E: paseando. (AV012796, 2;07;23)
'strolling'
Child: …estaba la oveja paseando.
'lit. was the sheep strolling/the sheep was strolling
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6.2 Elicited Production: Discourse and Storybook
What children produce naturally when given an option. (Closest to natural speech)
Constraint the context to have the subject produce a particular answer.
Allows experimenter to collect a large set of data about a particular form
Hill, Eric (1998) "Spot's big book of words". New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons. 34
Procedure
Pretraining: Making the child tell the story. Eric Hill’s “Spot’s big book of words”. Animal names.
Crocodile = Dragon, Dinosaur Hippopotamus = Bear, Cow
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Felicity Conditions: Eliciting Past Tense
Pilot studies, Thornton (1996) She argues that adults have better
capacity than children to accommodate pragmatic infelicities.
This was not true with my experiments.
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Video 2
Scoring Did the verb in the answer had the same tense
an aspect as the verb in the question? If not, what form was used?
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Results for Elicited Production: Questions with Storybook (Ambiguous Imperfect and
Progressive)All Children
Imperfect and Progressive With Book
Ambiguous Imperfect
progressive w / bookimperfect w / book
Me
an
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
.5
With the book (extensive context) children match more the progressive forms than the imperfect ones.
They are clearly marking the ongoing activity interpretation.
They don’t match with imperfect because they are answering with Present Participles or Progressive.
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Comparison with adults
Adults
Imperfect and Progressive With Book
Ambiguous Imperfect
progressive w / bookimperfect w / book
Me
an
3.4
3.2
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
Adults show the contrary pattern. They match more with Imperfect than with Progressive.
In general adults tend to match the question’s form.
Less match with Progressive because they allow Present Participles.
More attention to discourse than children.
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Results for Elicited Production: Questions without Storybook
(Habitual Imperfect and Progressive)
All Children
Imperfect and Progressive Without Book
Habitual Imperfect
progressive w /o bookimperfect w /o book
Me
an
1.2
1.1
1.0
.9
Children pay more attention to the discourse context without the book.
Here they do match with the Imperfect, since it has habitual meaning and it cannot be answered with a Present Participle.
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Comparison with adults.
Adults
Imperfect and Progressive Without Book
Habitual Imperfect
progressive w /o bookimperfect w /o book
Me
an
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
Here adults and children show the same pattern.
However, note that adults are producing more matching with Imperfect than children.
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General Results
They notice the difference between an ambiguous and a non ambiguous imperfect question.
When it is ambiguous, they answer with an ongoing-activity form (Progressive or Present Participle). (Effect of the Book).
When it is habitual, they answer more with an Imperfect form. (Discourse context alone)
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The 2 ;00 to 2;05 children It was very difficult to make the younger
group answer the questions about themselves.
Three possible explanations. These questions were more difficult for them
due to lack of extensive context. They may have had difficulty imagining
themselves at different times and situations. They may have just been uninterested in these
questions since they liked the storybook so much that they wanted to continue reading it.
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Development with Ambiguous Imperfect.
Imperfect and Progressive With Book
Ambiguous Imperfect
age
"Adult"
3.06-3.11
3.00-3.05
2.06-2.11
2.00-2.05
Me
an
4
3
2
1
0
imperfect w / book
progressive w/ book
Progressive is very high from almost the beginning and it decreases with age.
Use of Imperfect increases. More attention to discourse context.
2;00-2;05 group produced few Progressive forms, and no Past Progressives.
They do not show adult pattern
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Development with Habitual Imperfect
Imperfect and Progressive Without Book
Habitual Imperfect
age
"Adult"
3.06-3.11
3.00-3.05
2.06-2.11
2.00-2.05
Me
an
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
.5
0.0
imperfect w /o book
progressive w/o book
Progressive remains constant (except for younger group).
Increase in the use of Imperfect.
Same pattern as adults starts at age 3;00-3;05.
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Incorrect answers to habitual questions by age group.
Age Group Present Past 2;00-2;05 2 (22.2%) 0
(0%) 2;06-2;11 3 (37.5%) 4
(66.7%) 3;00-3;05 3 (25%) 4
(33.3%) 3;06-3;11 2 (18.2%) 1
(14.3%)
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Errors with Habitual Questions
(15) E: Do you go to your grandmother’s house?
E: What do you do at your grandmother’s house?
Child: eating (DR050398, 2;02;25)
(16) E: listen, and what else did you do when you were a baby?
Child: (I) was doing […] drawing with a-with some brushes. (RR080997, 2;11;08)
(17) E: do you sometimes go to the park, [Child’s name]?
Child: mmh. (affirmative sound)
E: What do you do at the park?
Child: playing. (AP031597; 3;03;25)
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Why do they answer habituals incorrectly?
Two possibilities: They do not understand the question asks
about habitual activities. They think one can answer habitual questions
with a Progressive form (they think it is synonymous with Imperfect)
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6.3 Comparing both tasks Both adults and children show effect of
referential context (book) by producing more ongoing-activity forms (Progressive and Present Participle).
Adults show effect of discourse context by matching the question’s form. Children only show this effect with habitual questions.
Adults reject Present Participle answers to Imperfect questions, but produce them in the Elicited Produsction task (23%)
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Children produce and imitate Present Participles very well with all question forms. They are the favorite forms.
Regarding infinitives, both adults and children accept them, but they don’t produce them much (adults up to 4.7% in total, children up to 10.9% in total).
Children develop in:• Their awareness of discourse context.• Their knowledge about habitual questions.• Their production of Progressive forms, especially
Past Progressives (imitated but not produced by 2;00-2;05 group). They imitated them better when the question was in the Past Progressive.
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ReferencesBlume, M. (2002) Discourse-morphosyntax interface in Spanish non-
finite verbs: A comparison between adult and child grammars. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University.
Hill, E. (1998) Spot’s big book of words. New York: G. P Putnam & Sons.
Slobin, D. I. & Welsh, C. (1973) Elicited imitation as a research tool in developmental psycho-linguistics. In C. A. Ferguson & D. I. Slobin (eds.), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1995) Relevance: communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Thornton, Rosalind (1996) Elicited Production. In McDaniel, Dana; McKee, Cecile, and Smith Cairns, Helen Methods for assessing children's syntax (pp. 77-102). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Acknowledgments Prof. Liliana Sánchez & Prof. José Camacho, Rutgers
University. The Cognitive Studies & European Studies Programs,
and CISER at Cornell University. Prof. Barbara Lust, Cornell University. Sarah Callahan, Makeba Parramore and Smriti Shetty. All the children, parents, teachers and adult subjects
that allowed me to work with them at Peru and Spain.
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