First Language Acquisition & other areas of linguistics

First Language Acquisition& other areas of linguistics

Language Universals (Meike Bauer )Language Pathology (Silvia Mincheva & Meike Strohn)Speech errors (Eva Ortmann & Lena Löbbert)Acquisition of Meaning (Vanessa Mosel & Sabine Staiger)

Language and the Mind Summer term 2006 Group 7

Language Universals

A short introduction

(Meike Bauer GS, LN)


Language Universals

• Def. Language:a system of communication by written or spoken words, which is used by the people of a particular country or area

• Def. Universal:involving or understood by everyone in the world


Language Universals

Def. Language Universals:Basic patterns or principles that are shared by all languages

Semantic universals

• Semantic categories that are shared by all cultures and referred to by all languages

• E.g.: our notion of colour

- black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, brown, purple,

pink, orange and grey

• E.g.: the case of pronouns

- “I”, “you”, “we”

- singular & plural in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd


• E.g.: universal rules which govern the distribution of vowels

- languages with few vowels always have

the same set of vowel types

- it is always the same type of vowel that is

added to the set

- they may not always sound the same, but

they are always created at the same location in

our vocal apparatus


Phonological universals

• Two different sets of basic orders- SVO, VSO, SOV- VOS, OVS, OSV

• First set appears more often among the languages of the world

• Overwhelming tendency for the subject of a sentence to precede the direct object among the languages of the world


Syntactic universals

• Rules that appear without exception in the languages which have been studied so far

- all languages have vowels

- all languages have pronoun systems distinguishing at

least three persons and two numbers

• Universal tendencies or relative universals are expressions that are used when there are minor exceptions to the rule

Language and the Mind Summer Term 2006 Group 7

Absolute universals

• Universals that hold only if a particular condition of the language structure is fulfilled

- if a language has voiced stops, it has the

corresponding voiceless stops

- e.g.: no language has b/d/g without p/t/k

• In opposite to implicational universals, nonimplicational universals can be stated without a condition


Implicational universals

• Hansjakob Seiler:

- empirical observation results in generalizations

but will not give us “the universals“

- universality cannot be reached by

generalization alone

- generalizations can be checked and,

eventually, falsified

- universals in our sense are not directly, but

only indirectly, reflected in the observable data


Criticism on the term “universals“

• Hawkins, John A. Explaining Language Universals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988

• Langenscheidt-Longman. Dictionary of Contemporary English. Harlow: Longman Group Ltd, 1995

• Seiler, Hansjakob. Language Universals Research: A Synthesis. Tübingen: Narr, 2000

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_universal (25th June)• http://www.hku.hk/linguist/program/Typology2.html (25th June)• http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb8/misc/lfb/html/text/2frame.html (21st

June)


References

Language Pathology

- Disorders of the Written Language -

-Dyslexia (Silvia Mincheva, LN, HS)- Dysgraphia (Meike Strohn, GS, TN)


DEFINITION OF DYSLEXIADisorders of the reading system referring to:

Children who have particular difficulties learning to readThese children when they become adultsPeople who have already acquired reading and become brain-damaged - ALEXIA


CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA I Four-stage reading acquisition (Frith, 1985)

I. Logographic Skills

II. Alphabetic Skills

III. Orthographic Skills

IV. Ability to read written language becomes

entirely independent of spoken language


CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA IITwo main categories of dyslexics

Children having difficulties with identifying whole words – Dyseidetics

Children having difficulties with decoding the sounds associated with letters – Disphonetics


CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA IIIChild dyslexics usually do not have history of neurological problemsChildren with recurrent ear infections in early childhood may develop dyslexiaCommon theory - there is an additional brain basis for the various forms of childhood dyslexia

Higher proportion of left-handers among dyslexicsDyslexia has been developed markedly more often among boys than among girls


ALEXIA IPeople who have already acquired reading and become brain-damaged which has affected their reading abilities

Sometimes reading problems are secondary to other sorts of language problems

“Pure alexics”- reading problem is the only language problem that is seen


ALEXIA II - Traditional classification system I. “Letter by letter reading”- patients cannot recognize

words or higher units but can recognize individual letters Input problem-problems with written but not auditory

input of letter strings. Ability to read small parts of words but not whole words.

II. Literal alexia – patients unable to read letters but relatively able to read whole words Grammatical functors and nonsense words more

poorly read than substantives


ALEXIA III - New classification system Surface alexia – patients are able to decode words phonologically but unable to recognize whole words

Deep alexia – patients are unable to decode words phonologically but perform some sort of whole-word or “gestalt” reading of words


Language Pathology

- Disorders of the Written Language -

- Dysgraphia (Meike Strohn, GS, TN)


Introduction•Definition of the Term

•Example

•Reasons for Dysgraphia

•Different Kinds of Dysgraphia

•Remedial Treatment

•Conclusion

•References


Definition of the TermDysgraphia:A disorder characterized by writing disabilities, irrespective of level of education, after damage to the brain. Due to varying degrees, it is difficult to determine, when it is pathological. The equivalent to dyslexia in writing.


ExampleFirst draft of a creative story as typed by a 12-year-old student:

“the way I descride a bumby ride is like wothgan mowtsarts mowsek. eshe bumby rowd is like a song. Eshe bumb is the a note eche uncon at the sam time ste is. that was the mewstere to mowts mowsuk it was vare metereus and unperdekdable. So the next time you drive down a bumby theak of mowtsart.“


Reasons for Dysgraphia•may be caused by the same triggers as dyslexia, but not necessarily

•visual processing weakness

•impaired graphic motor capacity


Reasons for Dysgraphia•Aphasia (acquired language disorder) focal brain damage mostly left hemisphere e.g. because of an accident, tumor or

stroke


Reasons for Dysgraphia•Alzheimer’s disease (shrinkage of the brain, a sort of dementia)•symptoms:- anomia- spelling errors - irregular or non-words- inappropriate repetition- illegibility•1) lexical, 2) phonological & 3) grapho-motor impairments


Different Kinds of Dysgraphia•Surface dysgraphic problems:- incorrect phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence patients can no longer sound out words they have to spell


Different Kinds of Dysgraphia•Deep dysgraphic problems:- lexico-semantic disturbances instead of the correct word, a semantically related one is usede.g. “scissors” “stapler”


Remedial Treatment•for motor disorders to help control writing movements

•for impaired memory or other neurological problems

•teaching to write more slowly

•usage of computers to avoid the problems of handwriting


Conclusion•reading and writing require all the skills of oral language+those of decoding and encoding orthographic information

•that is why there are so many vulnerable spots and a number of different reasons for reading and writing impairments (dyslexia and dysgraphia).


References•Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997•Crystal, David. Introduction to language pathology. London: Arnold, 1980•Crystal, David. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996•Grodzinsky, Yosef and Lewis P. Shapiro; David Swinney (ed.) Language and the brain. Representation and processing. London: Academic Press, 2000•Hickey, Raymond. Linguistics Surveyor. 2005 •Strazny, Philipp. Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York [u.a.]: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005•http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8107977&dopt=Abstract

•http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dysgraphia/dysgraphia.htm•http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/dysgraphia.html•http://www.margaretkay.com/Dysgraphia.htm


Speech Errors

A general introduction into the topic: speech errors

Eva Ortmann: LN (Grundstudium)


Speech Errors

• The first linguistic analysis was published in 1895 in

Vienna by Meringer and Meyer.

• 6 years later Freud published “ the classic psychological

treatment of speech errors”.

• it is important to mention these two because they had a

deep influence on following researches although their

attitudes towards speech errors were different.


Speech Errors

What do we mean by speech errors?

Example:

T: She is marked with a big scarlet A.

A: She is marked with a big scarlet R eh A.

Explication: the prespoken scarlet triggered red which because it begins with the letter R competed in this situation with the intended A.

( substitution)


Speech Errors

Which words are likely to be substituted by others?

• in general, semantically or phonologically similar items increase the possibility of speech errors

• the example of the scarlet A showed that errors where there is no obvious phonological similarity do also occur

• researches show that there are often substitutions in which the error and the target word are in an antonymous relation, or they are co- hyponyms co-hyponyms red instead of black antonyms late instead of early


Speech Errors

Analysis of spontaneously produced errors show that:

• 60% of the words result in non words

example: it is said: “Can I morrow your dotes?” instead of

“Can I borrow your notes?”

• 40% of the words result in actual words

example: it is said: “Did you forget to dock the lore?”

instead of “Did you forget to lock the door?”


Speech Errors

There are also some linguists who are concerned with the correction of speech errors.

Noteboom & Lavers

Laver thinks that there are so few errors made by us because of an active internal motoring of covert errors.


Speech Errors

Conclusion: speech errors is a very complex field of research speech errors occur to all people there is no linguistic unit that seems to be immune the number of speech errors also depends on the emotional situation of the subject (nervousness and anxiety trigger speech errors) words are more likely to be substituted by words that are phonologically or/ and semantically similar to the target word


Speech Errors

Slips of the tongue in normal and pathological

speech


• In 1901 Siegmund Freud suggested that slips of the tongue might tell us something about the “probable laws of the formation of speech“

• Spoonerisms are analysed by linguists who want to learn about the organization of language in the brain

• In literature there are many references to pathological speech pointing out the similarities between normal and pathological speech errors

1. Introduction

• Study by Ewa Söderpalm Talo comparing errors in normal speech and pathological speech errors in aphasia

• Definition: slip of the tongue = a deviation from what the speaker had in mind to say

• Adults with a damage of the brain can have articulatory disturbances of various kinds

2. Sampling

Many linguists pointed out that there are various kinds of difficulties in collecting speech errors:

- they occur in spontaneous speech, are seldom recorded - many errors are not noticed

In Ewa Söderpalm Talo‘s study the corpus of normal errors consists of about 200 slips of the tongue of adults.

There are about 100 examples of pathological speech errors which were collected in therapy sessions in conversation with aphasic patients. Most of them had suffered cerebral vascular accidents causing aphasia.

The phonological errors were analysed by a classification system:

1. Syntagmatic errors a) Metathesis of Phoneme (morpheme, word)

e.g. kontamination kontanimation

Kanada vann Vanada kann

b) Anticipation

e.g. insiktslöshet insliktlöshet

e.g. brittiske biträdande ministern bittiske biträdande…

3. Classification

c) Dublicatione.g. det tror jag är hiskeligt viktigt …hiskeligt visk

2. Paradigmatic Errors - Substitution of phoneme (morpheme, word)

e.g. nu ljuger jag nu ljuter jag

• Metathesis errors are very rare among the pathological errors

• The example of a paradigmatic error represents the most common type of error in the pathological corpus

• All kinds of errors occur in the normal and in the pathological corpus, but there is a difference in quantity

• Syntagmatic errors are more common in normal speech, whereas paradigmatic errors prevail in the pathological corpus

• 60 % of the errors in pathological speech are paradigmatic substitution errors, less than 20 % are paradigmatic in normal speech

• The occurrence of errors in aphasic speech is bigger than in normal speech, but there seem to be less types of errors

4. Conclusions

• Normal speakers are often aware of their mistakes, they correct them or indicate by pausing that they noticed it

• Aphasic speakers seldom correct their mistakes because they do not notice them

• During language rehabilitation the awareness of errors increases, so it could be used as an indicator for therapeutic progress

Quelle: Fromkin, Victoria A. : Errors in Linguistic Performance: Slips of the Tongue, Ear, Pen and Hand, 1980, Academic Press

Acquisition of Meaning



Part I Sabine Staiger

1. Lexical Development2. Bootstrapping3. Under & Overextensions4.Comprehension – Production Gap5. Vocabulary Burst6. Fast-Mapping7. Semantic Contrast





Lexical development:Which string of sounds corresponds to which meaning?!

Learning the semantics of words: Spoken word + certain attributes / characteristic properties

No fully viable theories of word-learning, but a few principles which are thought to guide the child’s word-learning process…



Principle of ReferenceWords refer to objects, actions, states, and attributes in the environment

Whole Object PrincipleWord refers to the whole object not just part of it

Principle of Categorical ScopeWord extended to other members of the same category rather thanto items thematically related to it

Principle of Lexical Contrast/ Mutual Exclusivity AssumptionChildren assume that each object has ONLY one label


Acquisition of Meaning Bootstrapping

From: ‘to lift oneself up by one’s bootstraps’

Computers: simple system activates a complicated system

Use combination of semantics & syntactic knowledge to learn new words

Divide words into grammatical subclasses very early (common vs. proper nouns)

will get children started on their way to acquiring parts of speech

(which can later be supplemented by other linguistic information)

Bootstrapping


Acquisition of Meaning Bootstrapping

Vocabulary production:

End of the first year= first words

15 month= producing 10 words

Vocabulary of around 50 = combine words

6 years= 10,000- 14,000 words

Bootstrapping


Acquisition of Meaning Under & Overextensions (I)

Under extensions:

Mapping of a word onto a very narrow, situation specific referent

eg. ‘shoe’ only refers to a specific pair of shoes ‘ dog’ only refers to the family dog

Principle of Reference not fully matured but Whole Object Principle is already in place!

Under & Overextensions (I)


Acquisition of Meaning Under & Overextensions (II)

Overextensions:

to generalize the meaning of words

eg. ‘apple’ other round this as well ‘ daddy’ refers to all men

shape/ color/ function/ material/ sound as well

Principle of Categorial Scope

Children have very limited vocabularies & simply do not know the words they need at that moment

Under & Overextensions (II)


Acquisition of Meaning Comprehension – Production Gap

State in which the child already comprehend words but they can not produce them on demand

Show a C-P gap in knowledge of vocabulary for a long time (adults: 2nd Language Acquisition)

Even a child (12-14 month) who hasn’t produced any word, comprehend many words even before they speak for the first time

IN SHORT: Children know more than they say!

Comprehension – Production Gap


Acquisition of Meaning Vocabulary Burst

Sudden, large increase in vocabulary

Takes place after an initial production of about 50 words - most of them are nouns - also referred to as ‘the naming explosion’ - related to word retrieval abilities

First-born children are more likely to show this ‘burst’ than the following children of the same family!

Vocabulary Burst


Acquisition of Meaning Fast-Mapping

how rapid & accurate the process of word-learning takes place

9-12 words a day

Mostly takes place without explicit instruction

Definition of words change over time

Fast-Mapping


Acquisition of Meaning Semantic Contrast

Different words have different meaning

Principle of Mutual Exclusivity

Hierarchy of concepts are used to interpret new words

Ellen Markman (1994) - how children assign meanings to words by introducing the word biff to different groups of preschoolers

Assists children in their task of learning thousands of words in a short time!

Semantic Contrast



Vanessa Mosel

Matr. Nr.: ES0221173400

Hauptstudium, TN



Content

I. Semantic/Thematic Roles and Relations

II. Interpretation of Pronouns

III. Presupposition: Understanding the Common Ground

IV. Children’s knowledge of the Count/Mass Distinction and Telicity

V. Conclusion




• The one-word speech of children expresses the basic set of thematic roles

a) object – milk said when reaching for milk

b) action – go spoken when Daddy was going out the door

c) instrument – knife spoken when mother cutting meat




• First word combinations can also express the basic set of thematic relations

a) action/object – Bite finger

b) object/location – Car garage

c) action/location – Sit bed




Ernie hit him. Ernie

Ernie hit him.

• Adults know (Principle P) that Ernie could not also be him

Principle P > pragmatic principle

• Children will point to a picture in which Ernie is hitting himself




Explanation:

Is it the case that children do not have the Principle P as part of their linguistic competence?

• The interpretation of pronouns have to do with their knowledge of pragmatics, how to use language effectively in context, and not

with their knowledge of grammar

Some aspects of syntax are available very early, while certain aspects of pragmatic knowledge develop later




1. Factive/ non factive verbs

• factive verbs: such as know, remember > carry presupposition

• Non-factive verbs: such as think, guess > do not carry presupposition

Example a) Romeo knew that Juliet was dead

b) Romeo thought Juliet was dead




2. definite/ indefinite determiner

• A definite determiner presuppose the existence of the object, existence is known by speaker and hearer

• An indefinite determiner is used when the speaker does not wish to refer to a specific character, or wants to introduce a character first




3. Experimental studies (a versus the)




1. Mass nouns (atelic event: consume ale)

• if we take some water and add more water to it, it is still water, need a measure to quantize them (e.g. a glass of water)

2. Count nouns (telic events: consume a beer)

• Inherently quantized, have an endpoint which delimits them




Example a) John consumed ale for an hour

b) John consumed a beer for an hour

Telicity is compositionally determined, which means that it is dependent on linguistic structure and grammatical principles




In English:

• Children use past tense -ed on verbs describing telic events

• Adults show the opposite tendency, they use -ed more often with atelic verbs

How can we explain this?

• The aspect-before-tense hypothesis



V. Conclusion

“ Thus even though all children must learn every word of their target language, certain aspects of linguistics may not have to be learned and are good candidates to be part of unlearned properties of the human mind”

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First Language Acquisition & other areas of linguistics

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