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Child Language Acquisition

Sahil Thapa

Amit Kumar Upadhyay

Prakhar Goyal

Naineet Patel

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Language Acquisition

Ponder on Language Acquisition

A complex task

Encompasses research fields : Natural Language Processing

Neural networks

Psychology

Statistics and other related fields

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Language Acquisition- The meaning..

Language acquisition - process by which the languagecapability develops in a human.

First language acquisition or Child Language

Acquisition concerns the development of language in

children.

da --> daddy--> daddy loves me ..

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Why to learn that !!

Long range influences on adult behaviour: as the

twig is bent, so grows the tree !!

Children change so rapidly compared to us adults. Insights into complex adult processes.

Interesting subject matter.

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Lets learn How Krish learns to talk

1 Week "WAAAAAAAA!"

Translation - "I'm hungry!"

Krish learns that people pay attention to you whenyou make noises

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Lets learn How Krish learns to talk

6 Months "Babadadagugubaba"

Translation - none.

Krish has learned that making noises is fun.

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Lets learn How Krish learns to talk

1 Year "paalle - g"

Translation "I want biscuit" (First time he ate

Parle G biscuit, although this time, it is a differentbiscuit now)

Krish has learned that you don't always have topoint to show people things.

You can correlate one type of thing to its similartype.

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Lets learn How Krish learns to talk

2-3 Years "Chacha Choudhry hit boy. Stick daddy.No Talks !!"

Translation Chacha Choudhry hitting boy with hisstick. And stop reading this story daddy! ( BecauseI'm scared)

He has learned that language helps you be quitespecific about what you feel and what you want.

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Lets learn How Krish learns to talk

5 Years "Papa, mai yeh kaam karna chahta huun!"

Finally he has learned the core structure and

grammar of the language. By now, he is almost able to communicate with his

fellow people and from now onwards he will tryexpanding the vocabulary and knowledge of thelanguage.

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Outline

Motivation & Meaning

Some facts about language acquisition

Theories explaining Child Language Acquisition Imp Stages in CLA

CHILDES

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3 imp facts about CLA

1. REGARDLESS OF THE LANGUAGE KIDS ARE

EXPOSED TO....

at 6 weeks they coo

at 6 months they babble

at 1 year they produce their first word

at 2 years they construct 2 word sentences

at 5 years they have almost acquired the core grammar of

their language

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3 imp facts about CLA

2. Universal phenomenon phonologically,

syntactically, and semantically.

3 .A natural process

Their syntax is very rarely explicitly corrected, and attempts atsuch correction are almost invariably unsuccessful.

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Outline

Motivation & Meaning

Some facts about language acquisition

Theories explaining Child Language Acquisition

Imp Stages in CLA

CHILDES

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Theories of Language Acquisition

Theories

Nativist Non Nativist

ChomskyCognitive Behaviorist

PiagetVyogtsky Skinner

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Chomskys Universal Grammar Theory

Language is a process of free creation; its lawsand principles are fixed, but the manner in whichthe principles of generation are used is free andinfinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use

of words involves a process of free creation

-- Avram Noam

Chomsky

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Chomskys Universal Grammar Theory

Language acquisition is influencedby language,not controlled by it !!! Arguments:

Language is complicated

No formal instruction.

Always succeed and that too in a short period of time Independent of other mental tasks.

Use deduction rather than by imitation or memorization.

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Chomskys Universal Grammar Theory

Neurological system in human brains that supportslanguage acquisition. Language Acquisition Device or

LAD.

Children are exposed to infinite data and given data LAD

produce a finite set of grammar rules.

L.A.D.

DataasInputGrammarOutput

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Chomskys Universal Grammar Theory

Children learn language by applying this unconsciousuniversal grammar to the sounds they hear.

Universal grammar forms the foundation of all humanlanguage. A universal grammar can be equated with

computer languages. There are many kinds of computerlanguages, but they all have some fundamental similarities

Language

Base Component

(Innate)

Transformational Component

(comes by interaction with society)

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Chomskys Universal Grammar Theory

Deep

Structure

Surface

Structure

BaseRules

Lexicon

Transformation

Rules

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Chomskys Universal Grammar Theory

So how these transformation rules look like? Subject-auxiliary inversion (SAI).

X NP AUX Y ==> X AUX NP Y

Ram is eating an alphonso mango."

Is ram eating an alphonso mango?". the bird was killed by the cat the bird was killed.

Deletion A+B+C A+ B:

Get out! Get out of here!;

addition/insertion, A+B A+B+ C: Mary up Call up Marypermutation A+B+C A+C+B Call

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Theories of Language Acquisition(Revisiting..)

Theories

Nativist Non Nativist

ChomskyCognitive Behaviorist

PiagetVyogtsky Skinner

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The Cognitive Approach (Piaget)

Children can only use certain linguistic structureswhen they understand fully the conceptssurrounding them

A child can not use comparison of size if he/she does notunderstand

the concept of size. Can focus on only one aspect or dimensionof problems.

Example - row of 5 blocks and a row of 7 blocks can count theblocks

in each row and can tell number contained in each. But cant tellwhich

is longer?

Progressive reorganization resulting frommaturation and experience.

Based on discrepancies between what they

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The Cognitive Approach (Piaget)

Sensorimotor stage (0-2 yrs):Trial and error learning.

Behaviors become goal directed.

Object permanence.

Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs):mentally represent objects and events.

egocentric thoughts and communications.

unable to focus on more than one concepts simultaneously.

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The Cognitive Approach (Piaget)

Concrete operational stage(7-11yrs):

Abilities of conversation and reversibility.

Organized and rational thinking.

can solve problems with more logical fashion.

Formal operational stage(11+ yrs):More abstract thinking.

Higher order reasoning.Can combine and classify in more sophisticated way.

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The Cognitive Approach (Vygotsky)

Knowledge from external world transformed andinternalized.

Not isolated 'lone thinker', culture and society aremore important for a child's thought.

Social Interaction and then cognition:

Development first on a social plane. Learn fromparents' behavior, their speech, imitate them.Parents correct them.

Afterwards information becomes internalized.Language is now inner speech.

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The Behaviorist Approach (Skinner)

language is acquired by conditioning andreinforcement

Learns through rewards and punishments.Children learn to speak by imitation. Parents then

reinforce or correct their speech. Children dont imitate

perfectly they may say words similar to what they hear aroundthem. Problems : 1. They over-extend language patterns they

already know;

Steal > stealed > instead of stoleDrive > drived > instead of drove

This is not imitation instead it is an extension

as adults do

Poverty of the Stimulus

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Outline

Motivation & Meaning

Some facts about language acquisition

Theories explaining Child Language Acquisition

Imp Stages in CLA

CHILDES

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Significant stages in Child Language

Acquisition

Function Meaning &

Examples

Structure

What children tryto do with the

language:-

request, ask

questions, etc..

States, events &relationships about

which they talk.

Some interesting

examples too !!

The way in whichtheir language is

put together

ultimately the

Grammar !!

S f C

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Significant stages in Child Language

Acquisition

Function Meaning &

Examples

Structure

First utterances:

Purpose:-

To get

someones

attention.

To direct

attention to an

object or event.

Commonly called as

naming insight.

They relate objects to

other things, places

and people.

Mummy

Daddy car

-Single words such

as look car

known as

operators.

- Other sentences

consist of 2 words:

Daddy car

(Obj Name +

Operator)

Stage - 1

Si ifi i Child L

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Significant stages in Child Language

Acquisition

Function Meaning &

Examples

Structure

Ask questions

where & what

questions appear

first..

Purpose:-

They try to fulfill

the desire of

naming &

classifying things.

They may begin to

talk about locations

changing and actions.

daddy sitting car

Curious to know

about where and

what of object !

where ball

- Sentences follow:

interrogative

pronoun + (object

or verb)

(where ball)

- Other sentences:

Articles (a/an, the)

appear before

noun:

Stage - 2

Si ifi t t i Child L

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Significant stages in Child Language

Acquisition

Function Meaning &

Examples

Structure

Start asking lots

of questions !

More complexity

appears in the

sentences !

They enquire about

the state of the

actions in a proper

way.

Daddy sitting in car

?

They start to ask

about actions &

events.

- Sentences follow:

subject + verb +

object

(mai khaau use ??)

- Auxiliary verbs

come into play. Use

prepositions too !!

daddy sittingin

car

Stage - 3

Si ifi t t i Child L

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Significant stages in Child Language

Acquisition

Function Meaning &

Examples

Structure

Sentences

become more

complex:

Start making

requests.

Ask for

explanations too:

Whyquestions

appear !

Here, they begin to

express meaning

indirectly, replacing

imperatives (Give

me...) with questions(Can I have?) when

these suit their

purposes better.

kya main use khaun?

- Use question

forms (Can I) &

negations (doesnt

laugh) easily.

-They use (often

implied) relative

clauses

I know daddy is

sitting in car.

Stage - 4

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Significant stages in Child LanguageAcquisition

This model explains the process of languageacquisition.

Variations possible among children at each stage but

little variation in sequence of language learning. From stage-5 on, what is learned increasingly depends

upon experience and environment

Opportunities to use language

And hearing it used.

Involves wide range of contexts and correspondingenvironment.

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Outline

Motivation & Meaning

Some facts about language acquisition

Theories explaining Child Language Acquisition

Imp Stages in CLA

CHILDES

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Childes Its relevance !!

A system for transcribing and encoding childrens

interactions.

It is developed at CMU.

It helps in studying syntactic construct and Part ofSpeech.

Research on various language disorders.

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A brief introduction

Founded : 1984 Director: Brian Mac Whinney

An international Database for the study of first and

second language acquisition Tools to analysis conversational interaction

Linking data to digitized audio and video

4500 Members 1500 published articles

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An Example

A picture description task- the patient is mentioning animal in a set of

pictures

- each picture having animal eating bananas.

- only single animal appears in each

- raw form, the patient said was simply,

rabbits, squirrel and monkeys

Here is how this is transcribed:

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Transcription

@g: 3a = bunny is eating banana *PAT: rabbits [*].

%mor: DET|0 N|rabbit-*PL

%err: rabbits = rabbit $SUB;

@g: 3b = squirrel eating banana *PAT: squirrel.

%mor: DET|0 N|squirrel

@g: 3c = monkey eating banana

*PAT: monkeys [*]. %mor: DET|0 N|monkey-*PL.

%err: monkeys = monkey $SUB ;

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References

Manolson, Ayala It Takes Two to Talk, A Parent's Guideto Helping Children Communicate. 1992

Communication and Cognition - Artificial Intelligence,Vol. 12, Nos. 1-2, pp. 45-61, Special Issue Self-Reference in Biological and Cognitive Systems, LuisRocha

On the role of parameters in Universal Grammar: areply to Newmeyer, Ian Roberts and Anders Holmberg,University of Cambridge/ University of Newcastle upon

Tyne A Working Paper on First Language Acquisition

Research:Some Notes on Theory and Method, Joseph Galasso,San Diego State University (1999)

The CHILDES System, Brain Mac Whinney, From:

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Thank You