Chapter 5: Morphology and Syntax in the Preschool Years

What did Bellugi find to be the three stages of using negatives in sentences?

1. Placing the negative outside the sentence (No go movies) 2. Placing the negative inside the sentence next to the main verb (I no go movies) 3. Approximates adult form (I don't want to go to the movies)

Children begin to combine two words at approximately what age?

18-24 months (the second half of the second year)

What are CHILDES and CLAN?

Child Language Data Exchange System - a database of child language samples; CLAN - the software used to analyze the transcripts

What is UG?

Chomskys linguistic framework that explains syntax; common rules for combining words across languages

What is potentially the most difficult part of a child breaking into the surrounding language system?

The speech system is a constant flow of sounds with no pauses between words. Dividing language into chunks is the most difficult part. How children do this is a mystery in some languages. In English, we think motherese helps, but not all languages have this

What does UG stand for?

Universal Grammar

Is word order in children's two word utterances regular?

Yes

What are parameters?

a set of principles that can be conceived of as switches, so that each language's grammar can be captured by a unique combination of switch settings on all the main parameters

What is government and binding theory?

a version of UG that has as its central tenet that there are several components of the grammar that are linked at different levels of representation

How did Brown define linguistic complexity?

The more information you need in order to be able to use something makes it more complex and the later it's going to evolve. There's semantic complexity (number of meanings encoded in the morpheme) and syntactic complexity (number of rules required for the morpheme)

Give an example of sentential coordination

I want candy and I want a toy.

Give an example of phrasal coordination.

I want candy and a toy.

One goal of UG is universality. What does that mean?

It means that a theory of grammar should explain the grammars of all the world's languages.

What is learnability?

Learnability is the second goal of Universal Grammar: that it must be compatible with the fact that children learn grammar with no explicit instruction

What is MLU

Mean Length of Utterance

Is the order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes dependent on the frequency upon which it is heard?

No, it is dependent on linguistic complexity

Who developed UG?

Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believes that our mental representation of grammar is autonomous of other cognitive systems, which means that the principles and rules of grammar are not shared with other cognitive systems.

Explain Null-subject/Pro-Drop Parameter

Null-subject/pro-drop: In English, every sentence must have an explicit subject (It is raining). Other languages, such as Italian allow you to drop the subject in the s-structure (Is raining.) Tiny binary switches are the parameters of your language.

What are open-class and closed-class words and which are more frequent in early child language?

OPEN CLASS: content words, N, V, ADJ (more frequent) freely admit new words and drop old ones as language evolves CLOSED CLASS: function words (prepositions, articles) do not change as language develops

What is a d-structure?

Refers to the deep psychological connection between the subject and object (hidden)

What is an s-structure?

Refers to the spoken, phonological structure of the linear string of words (Example: John is easy to please. John is eager to please. Both sentences have almost same s-structure: Noun-verb-adjective-infinitive verb.

This marks the beginning of _____________ production.

Syntactic

What do these errors show us?

That children have learned to apply a syntactic rule

What is MLU a measure of?

it is a measure of syntactic development/complexity; the average length of utterance measured by morphemes (minimal unit carrying meaning). Examples: He/ lik/ed/ his/ shoe/s. = 6 morphemes Mom/'s/ purse/wa/s full. = morphemes. MLU loses value after MLU of 4.0

What 2 parts does the d-structure have?

lexicon - content words and their meanings phrase structure rules - relation between subjects and predicates; organizes the basic structure of the sentence

What are overregulation errors?

mistakes in applying a morphological rule when it should not be applied (adding plural -s to exceptional nouns like mans, foots, teeths; or using the regular past tense on irregular verbs like falled, broked, goed)

What are some characteristics of Stage 1 language?

open class words; movement from 1 to 2 word utterances; typical 2-word combinations; telegraphic (content words without functors); children talk a lot about objects, people, and actions.

What two forms does the s-structure have?

phonetic form - sound structure of the sentence logical form - captures the meaning of the sentence and connects the grammar to other parts of cognition

What are some syntactic structures that are acquired later than most?

relative clauses, passives, anaphora

The lexicon and the logical form are connected by the assignment of _______________.

thematic roles.

Movement to the 2-word stage is related upon what factors?

timing of child's first words, the time they have 50 word receptive vocabulary, the responsiveness of the mothers to their children's communications at around the first birthday

What connects the d and s-structures?

transformational rules - makes the d-structure visible; "move any category anywhere"; reorders the elements of the phrase structure into the linear arrangement of the surface form; important in English in creating questions.