1Psych 56L/ Ling 51:Acquisition of LanguageLecture 12Development of Syntax & Morphology IIAnnouncementsHomework 2 due todayNo office hours 11/13 or 11/18 (please email to set upan appointment if you need to see me)From One Word to ManyBeyond Single Word SpeechVertical constructions: before producing two-word utterances,some children utter successive single-word utterances thatseem to be related to each other in meaningEx: little girl pointing to her infected eye: “Ow. Eye.”Why not a two-word utterance “Ow -eye!”? Intonation indicated these weresingle word utterances.Often vertical constructions build on wordspreviously said around/to the child.“Your eye looks red, sweetie!”“Ow. Eye.”2Beyond Single Word SpeechUnanalyzed combinations: most children have transitional formsthat combine multiple words, but which the child doesn’trealize are multiple wordsEx: “Iwant” (I want), “Idunno” (I don’t know)Productive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleepProductive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleepdaddy cookie“daddy’s cookie”Productive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“cookie to daddy”cookie daddy3Productive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“more cookies”more cookieProductive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“more juice”more juiceProductive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“two cookies”two cookieProductive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“mommy’s wet”mommy wet4Productive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“daddy’s wet”wetdaddyProductive Word CombinationProductive: being able to use known vocabulary in differentcombinationsdaddycookiejuicemommylittlewethotbluetwomoresitsleep“daddy’s sitting”daddy sitMeaning of Word CombinationsAlthough children can express a variety of meaning with two-wordutterances, children’s first word combination tend to be limitedin their range of relational meaning.relational meaning: referring to relation between referentsEx: “my teddy” --> teddy belongs to me, relationship between meand teddyMeaning of Word CombinationsSome types of relational meaningagent + action Daddy sitaction + object drive caragent + object Mommy sockagent + location sit chairentity + location toy floorpossessor + possession my teddyentity + attribute crayon bigdemonstrative + entity this telephoneNote how these differ from “Ow. Eye.”5Beyond Two WordsEven when children produce multiword utterances, they stillproduce single word utterances. Point: children’sdevelopment measured by the maximum number of wordsthey produce in a given utterance.When children start to put 3 words together, many arecombinations of the relational meanings expressed in the twoword stage.“I watching cars” = “I watching” + “watching cars”“Put it table” = “Put it” + “it table”Beyond Two WordsEarly sentences tend to be imperatives (commands), as well asaffirmative, declarative statements. Questions and negationscome later.Imperative:“Dance with them!”Affirmative, declarative: “I dance with them.”Question: “Can I dance with them?”Negation: “I don’t dance with them.”Beyond Two WordsBeyond Two WordsImperatives dominate early on, then taper off.6Beyond Two WordsDeclaratives always a fairly large proportionBeyond Two WordsQuestions always a fairly small proportionTelegraphic SpeechTypical grammatical categories included in children’s multiwordspeech: nouns, verbs, adjectivesTypical categories missing: determiners (the, a), prepositions (to,by, from), auxiliary verbs (am, are, was), bound morphemes (-splural marker)Basic division of meaning:more contentful vs. more grammaticalYou can communicate quite well without the more grammaticalcategories.Morphological DevelopmentBetween 2 and 3 years old, children begin adding in the moregrammatical categories - in particular the bound morphemes.Usage of boundmorpheme (either -ingprogressive or -s plural)when required7Morphological DevelopmentBetween 2 and 3 years old, children begin adding in the moregrammatical categories - in particular the bound morphemes.Usage of boundmorpheme (either -ingprogressive or -s plural)when requiredDevelopment is gradual,though there are largeranges - not all boundmorphemes come in atthe same timeMorphological DevelopmentThe order of acquisition for bound morphemes in English doesappear to be similar across different children, however (even iftheir rates of development are quite different).But what about development crosslinguistically?Remember, English is fairly impoverished morphologicallywhen compared to languages like Hungarian.English: “the goblin” = always the same formHungarian: “the goblin” may have up to 16 different forms,depending on what “the goblin” ’s role in the sentence isMorphological DevelopmentNote: Morphologically rich languages are not necessarily moredifficult for children to learn. Regular/predictable systems areeasier for children to learn than languages that have multipleexceptions (like English often does).Regularity vs. exceptions in English (ex: past tense):We laughed.We hugged.We danced.* We singed. (We sang.)* We runned. (We ran.)Morphological DevelopmentNote: Morphologically rich languages are not necessarily moredifficult for children to learn. Regular/predictable systems areeasier for children to learn than languages that have multipleexceptions (like English often does).Regular morphologically rich language: TurkishInflected forms seem no harder for Turkish children toacquire. In fact, they often produce inflected forms(equivalent to English “laughed”) before they even combinewords in multiple word utterances.8Morphological DevelopmentOther factors