PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Language Acquisition

Announcements Exam 2 moved to March 6th (1 week from today). Some other due dates have shifted:

Quiz 4, moved back a week (now Feb 28th) Hmwk 3, moved to Feb 27th (tonight by 5)

2 sets of data in favor of innateness

If language is learned (and not innate), it must depend on feedback.

What kind of feedback do they get? Claim: Positive evidence is not sufficient for learning a language

Positive evidence alone is not enough Negative evidence is also needed, and their isn’t much of that

Critical period for language learning. Claim: Children must experience language early on to fully

learn it

What kind of “teaching” do kids get? Are the kids even aware of mistakes?

The children are apparently aware of the fact that their forms are strange:

Parent: Where’s Mommy? Child: Mommy goed to the store Parent: Mommy goed to the store? Child: NO! Daddy, I say it that way, not you

Positive and negative evidence

Positive evidence: Kids hear grammatical sentences

Negative evidence: information that a given sentence is ungrammatical

Kids are not told which sentences are ungrammatical(no negative evidence)

What kind of feedback is available for learning?

What kind of “teaching” do kids get? How much Positive Evidence is there (in CDS)?

Estimated 5000 – 7000 utterances a day Between ¼ and 1/3 are questions (“What is…?” “Are you …?” Over 20% are not “full” adult sentences (typically Noun or

prepositional phrases) Only about 15% have typical English SVO form Roughly 45% of all maternal utterances began with one of 17

words (e.g., “what”, “that”, “it”, “you”)Cameron-Faulkner, et al (2003)

• So what kids do hear may be somewhat limited• but maybe this simpler/smaller set helps them learn

Negative evidence Negative evidence could come in various

conceivable forms. “The sentence Bill a cookie ate is not a sentence in

English, Timmy. No sentence with SOV word order is.”

Upon hearing Bill a cookie ate, an adult might Not understand Look pained Rephrase the ungrammatical sentence

grammatically

Kids resist instruction…McNeill (1966)

Child: Nobody don’t like me. Adult: No, say ‘nobody likes me.’ Child: Nobody don’t like me.

[repeats eight times]

Adult: No, now listen carefully; say ‘nobody likes me.’ Child: Oh! Nobody don’t likes me.

Kids resist instruction…Cazden (1972) (observation attributed to Jean Berko Gleason)

Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. Adult: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits? Child: Yes. Adult: What did you say she did? Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. Adult: Did you say she held them tightly? Child: No, she holded them loosely.

So there doesn’t seem to be a lot of explicit negative evidence, and what there is the kids often resist

Negative evidence via feedback?

Do kids get “implicit” negative evidence? Do adults understand grammatical sentences and not understand

ungrammatical ones? Do adults respond positively to grammatical sentences and

negatively to ungrammatical ones?

Brown & Hanlon (1970):Case study of “Adam” - looked at things that were said to

him by adults, and what he said to them Adults understood 42% of the grammatical sentences. Adults understood 47% of the ungrammatical ones.

Adults expressed approval after 45% of thegrammatical sentences.

Adults expressed approval after 45% of the ungrammatical sentences.

Suggests that there isn’t a lot of good negative evidence.

Negative evidence via feedback?

Enough feedback? One of the striking things about child language is how few

errors they actually make. For negative feedback to work, the kids have to make the errors

(so that it can get the negative response). But they don’t make enough relevant kinds of errors to determine

the complex grammar. Pinker, Marcus and others, conclude that much of this stuff

must be innate. But this isn’t the only view. There is an ongoing debate about

whether there are rules, or whether these patterns of behavior can be learned based on the language evidence that is available to the kids

Critical (sensitive) periods Certain behavior is developed more quickly

within a critical period than outside of it. This period is biologically determined.

Examples: Imprinting in ducks (Lorenz, ; Hess, 1973)

Ducklings will follow the first moving thing they see Only happens if they see something moving within the first

few hours (after 32 hours it won’t happen) of hatching Binocular cells in humans

Cells in visual system that respond only to input from both eyes.

If these cells don’t get input from both eyes within first year of life, they don’t develop

Critical (sensitive) periods

Some environmental input is necessary for normal development, but biology determines when the organism is responsive to that input.

That “when” is the critical period

Certain behavior is developed more quickly within a critical period than outside of it. This period is biologically determined.

Critical period for language

It assumes that language acquisition must occur before the end of the critical period

Estimates range from 5 years up to onset of puberty

Lenneberg (1967) proposed that there is a critical period for human language

Evidence for critical period for language

Feral Children Children raised in the wild or with reduced exposure to

human language What is the effect of this lack of exposure on language

acquisition? Two classic cases

Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron Genie

Victor, The Wild Boy of Aveyron Found in 1800 near the outskirts of Aveyron, France

Estimated to be about 7-years-old Considered by some to be the first documented case of autism

Neither spoke or responded to speech Taken to and studied by Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, and

educator of deaf-mute and retarded children Never learned to speak and his receptive language ability was

limited to a few simple commands. Described by Itard as “an almost normal boy who could not speak”

Genie Found in Arcadia, California in 1970, was not

exposed to human language until age 13.5. Raised in isolation a situation of extreme abuse Genie could barely walk and could not talk when

found Dr. Susan Curtiss made great efforts to teach her

language, and she did learn how to talk, but her grammar never fully developed.

Only capable of producing telegraphic utterances (e.g. Mike paint or Applesauce buy store)

Used few closed-class morphemes and function words

Speech sounded like that of a 2-year-old

Genie By age of 17 (after 4 years of extensive training) Vocabulary of a 5 year old Poor syntax (telegraphic speech mostly)

Examples Mama wash hair in sink At school scratch face I want Curtiss play piano Like go ride yellow school bus Father take piece wood. Hit. Cry.

The forbidden experiment Why do we talk? video Part 4 (start at 5 min mark)

Oxana Malaya

Isolated birds (continues in part 5, stop at 2:30 mark)

zebra finches raised in isolation

What Do These Cases Tell Us? Suggestive of the position that there is a critical

period for first language learning (in particular for syntax and phonological development)

If child is not exposed to language during early childhood (prior to the age of 6 or 7), then the ability to learn syntax will be impaired while other abilities are less strongly affected

Not uncontroversial: Victor and Genie and children like them were deprived in many ways other than not being exposed to language

Genie stopped talking after age 30 and was institutionalized shortly afterward (Rymer, 1993)

What Do These Cases Tell Us? Suggestive of the position that there is a critical

period for first language learning (in particular for syntax and phonological development)

Why? Nativist explanation (see pg 79 of text) Maturational explanation: “less is more”

Second language learning Learning a new language

What if we already know one language, but want to learn another?

Adults learning another language typically have a persistent foreign accent – perhaps a critical period for phonology (Flege & Hillenbrand, 1984)

Adults typically do better initially at learning a new language compared to kids, but kids typically do better over the long term (Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1982)

Second language learning Johnson and Newport (1989)

Native Chinese/Korean speakers moving to US Task: Listen to sentences and judge whether

grammatically correct

Test

sco

re

Age of arrival2 17

R = -.87

Test

sco

reAge of arrival

17 40

R = -.16

Second language learning Johnson and Newport (1989)

Native Chinese/Korean speakers moving to US Task: Listen to sentences and judge whether

grammatically correct Concluded that around the age of 16 something

happens Different factors operate on language acquisition before

and after the age of 16

Birdsong and Molis (2001) Replicated the Johnson and Newport study in

Spanish/English speakers. Did not find a discontinuity around the age of 16

Effects of the Critical Period Learning a language:

Under 7 years: perfect command of the language possible Ages 8- c.15: Perfect command less possible progressively Age 15-: Imperfect command possible

But these claims are far from universally accepted

Bilinguals & Polyglots Many people speak more than one language

Tucker (1999) - multilinguals outnumber monolinguals What is the impact of knowing/using more than one

language? Factors affecting second language acquisition? What does the lexicon look like? Interesting effects in bilinguals

Interference Code switching Cognitive advantages

Second language acquisition Contexts of childhood bilingualism

Simultaneous Both languages are acquired at the same time

Vocabulary growth of bilinguals is similar to that of monolinguals Some aspects of acquisition may be slowed, but by age of 4

typically caught up Doesn’t seem to matter whether languages are “related” or not

(e.g., English - French versus English Japanese) Can achieve “fluency” in both languages

Sequential acquisition The second language is learned after a first language

When the second language (L2) is acquired is important Early versus late learning (e.g., see the Johnson and

Newport study)

Second language acquisition Frequency of usage of both languages

How often and in what contexts do you use the two languages “Use it or lose it” - language attrition

Mode of acquisition Native bilingualism - growing up in a two language environment Immersion - schooling provided in a non-native language Submersion - one learner surrounded by non-native speakers

Language dominance effects Relative fluency of L1 and L2 may impact processing

How do we represent linguistic information in a bilingual lexicon?

Probably depends on many of the factors just discussed Let’s look at some models and research focusing on the

situation where L1 is dominant relative to L2

Bilingual Representations

Models of the bilingual lexicons

L1=First LanguageL2=Second Language

Potter et al (1984): Separate Stores Models – separate lexicons for each language

L1 L2

CONCEPTS

Word Association Model

L1 L2

CONCEPTS

Concept Mediation Model

Models of the bilingual lexicons

L1=First LanguageL2=Second Language

Paivio, Clark, & Lambert (1988): Common Stores Models – words from both languages in same store

L1 & L2

CONCEPTS

Revised Hierarchical Model

L1 L2

concepts

lexicallinks

conceptuallinks

conceptuallinks

Kroll & Stewart (1994) Proposed that the fluency of

L2 needs to be considered in the processing model

The results are mixed, supporting more complex models

May be different in different bilinguals depending on things like age of acquisition, relative proficiency, etc.

Interesting effects in bilinguals Interference Code switching Cognitive advantages

Interference Does knowing two languages lead to interference? When found, interference is at multiple levels

Phonological - least amount of interference Lexical - mixing words from different languages

Initially, appear to use a one word per thing strategy But as they realize there that they’re speaking two language,

then they’ll use words from both languages simultaneously Syntactic

Until year two, may use only one syntactic system which is common to both languages

Then a brief period with two sets of lexical items, but still a common syntax

Finally, two lexicons and two sets of syntax

Interesting effects in bilinguals

Interesting effects in bilinguals Determine who or what is the one performing the action.

The waitress pushes the cowboys. The telephones pushes the cowboys. Kisses the table the apple. The baskets the teacher kicks.

As a native speaker of English we can use many cues:

Word order Animacy Verb agreement

Not all languages use the same cues to the same extent

e.g., German doesn’t rely as much on word order, but relies more on agreement processes

Interesting effects in bilinguals Determine who or what is the one performing the action.

The waitress pushes the cowboys. The telephones pushes the cowboys. Kisses the table the apple. The baskets the teacher kicks.

Kilborn (1989, 1994) Found that bilinguals (English as second language)

typically carry over the dominant processing strategies from their native languages.

This interacts with their level of fluency in the second language

Code switching When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one

language with a phrase or word from another language

“I want a motorcycle VERDE”

Switching is systematic, not random

When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language

“I want a motorcycle VERDE”

Code switching

The Spanish adjective “verde” follows a grammatical rule that is observed by most bilingual speakers that code-switch

“I want a VERDE motorcycle” Would be incorrect

because language switching can occur only if the adjective is placed according to the rules of the language of the adjective

In this case, the adjective is in Spanish; therefore, the adjective must follow the Spanish grammatical rule that states that the noun must precede the adjective

When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language

“I want a motorcycle VERDE”

Code switching

Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehend sentences containing code-switched words

May be due to a “mental switch mechanism” that determines which of the bilingual’s two mental dictionaries are “on” or “off” during language comprehension.

This mental switch is responsible for selecting the appropriate mental dictionary to be employed during the comprehension of a sentence.

E.g., if reading an English, a Spanish code-switched word is encountered, the mental switch must disable the English linguistic system, and enable the Spanish linguistic system.

When bilinguals substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language

“I want a motorcycle VERDE”

Code switching

Generally, bilinguals take longer to read and comprehend sentences containing code-switched words

This time difference depends on similarity of the languages Chinese-English bilinguals take longer to recognize English code-

switched words in Chinese sentences only if the English words contain initial consonant-consonant (e.g., flight) clusters, simply because the Chinese language lacks this phonotactic structure.

Another current view suggests that language dominance (i.e., which language is used more frequently) plays an important role in code-switching

Some evidence suggest that being bilingual can have an impact on cognition outside of language

Bialystok and colleagues Bilinguals are very proficient at switching between languages Bilinguals also have to be good at suppressing the contextually

inappropriate language

Cognitive advantages