The acquisition of simple sentences

One-word utterances / holophrases Daddy.[Adam 1;4] Mommy.[Adam 1;4] Doggy.[Adam 1;5] Goodbye.[Adam 1;5] Allgone.[Adam 1;6]

One-word utterances / holophrases Children‘s early one-word utterances are speech acts. There is no distinction between words and sentences at this stage.

Sequences of one-word utterances The child and her father are sitting at a table. The father is cutting peaches into pieces. After eating two pieces of peach, the child wants another one. CHILD:Peach. Daddy. (Child picks up the spoon) CHILD:Spoon. (Child gives both peach and spoon to her father) CHILD:Daddy. Peach. Cut.

Sequences of one-word utterances The child pretends to cook something on a toy stove. CHILD:Cook. Baby. MOTHER:Is the baby cooking? CHILD:Pot. Meat.

Fundamental frequencies nonfinal words

Duration of nonfinal words (polysyllabic words)

Sequences of single words There is evidence that sequences of single words are often planned as single units. 1. intonation 2. duration 3. pauses

Sentence formulas Kendall swim. Kimmy come. Doggie bark. Pillow fall. Daddy cookie. [Daddy is eating a cookie] Kendall spider. [Kendall is looking at a spider] Adam book. [Adam is reading a book] Daddy door. [Daddy is closing the door] Agent and action Agent and patient

Sentence formulas Hit ball. Put book. Drink milk. Eat apple. Play bed. Sit pool. Walk street. Come here. Action and patient Action and location

Sentence formulas Book table. Sweater chair. Ball floor. Kimmy bike.[That is Kimmy’s bike] Daddy shoe.[That is daddy’s shoe] Adam foot.[That is Adam’s foot] Entity and location Possessor and possessed

Sentence formulas Big train. Red train. Hot milk. No milk. No water. No play. Modifier and object Negation and object/action

Sentence formulas That doggy. It cat. There ball. This my spoon. What dat? Who dat? Where doggy? Focus and object Question word and (pro)noun

Sentence formulas 1. Children’s early utterances are grounded in the conceptualization of basic situations. 2. The acquisition of meaning precedes the acquisition of structure.

Pivot grammar Martin Braine (1963; 1976): Children’s grammar consists of two types of words: (1) pivot words (2) open class words

Pivot grammar Pivot words: Spatial particlesup, off, back Pronouns/deicticsthat, it Possessivesmy, your Certain verbsput, take, see Certain adjectivesbig, pretty Other relational termsother, more, allgone, bye-bye

Pivot grammar OP + OO + PO + O Daddy Hi Byebye See boy See sock Pretty boat Pretty fan My Mommy My milk Allgone shoe Allgone egg More taxi More melon Shoe off Shirt off Daddy do Mommy do Blanket away Daddy away. Mommy sleep Milk cup Baby sit.

Pivot grammar Pivot grammar rules (Braine 1963): S → ODaddy S → P + OThat cat. S → O + PBook back. S → O + OAdam book.

Constructivist approach Dat Daddy.2;0 Dat’s Weezer.2;0 Dat my chair.2;1 Dat’s him.2;1 Dat’s a paper too.2;4 That’s too little for me.2;9 More car.1;11 More that.2;0 More cookie.2;0 More fish.2;1 More jump.2;1 More Peter water.2;4

Constructivist approach No bed.1;11 No bread.2;0 No eat.2;2 No milk.2;2 No apple juice.2;5 Block get-it.2;3 Bottle get-it.2;3 Mama get-it.2;4 Towel get-it.2;4 Dog get-it.2;4 Books get-it.2;5

Constructivist approach Boot off.2;0 Light off.2;1 Hands off.2;1 Pants off.2;1 Hat off.2;3 Spoon back.2;2 Tiger back.2;3 Give back.2;3 Ball back.2;3 Want ball back.2;4

Constructivist approach Clock on there.2;2 Up on there.2;2 Hot in there.2;2 Milk in there.2;4 Water in there2;5 All broke.2;0 All buttened.2;3 All clean.2;4 All done.2;4

Constructivist approach All gone milk.2;2 All gone shoe.2;2 All gone juice.2;2 All gone bear.2;3

Constructivist approach How do we characterize these utterances? They have meaning. They have structure. They do not have the structure of adult grammar. They are organized around concrete words.

Constructivist approach Brooks and Tomasello (1999) 2,0-3;0-year olds meeking = pushing a car-like vehicle up a slope.

Constructivist approach Active condition Look, Big Bird is going to meek something. Big Bird is going to meek the car. Who’s going to meek the car? (pointing to Big Bird) That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car. Big Bird is going to meek what? (pointing to the car) Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car. Did you see who meeked the car? Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car.

Constructivist approach Passive condition Look, the car is going to get meeked. The car is going to get meeked by Big Bird. What’s going to get meeked? (pointing to the car) That’s right, the car is going to get meeked. The car is going to get meeked by who? (pointing to Big Bird) Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird. Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird? Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird.

Constructivist approach 1.What did the AGENT (e.g. child) do? 2. What happened to the PATIENT (e.g. car)?

Constructivist approach Active training Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? 1288 What is the AGENT doing? 0100

Constructivist approach Active training Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? 1288 What is the AGENT doing? 0100 Passive training Passive response Active response

Constructivist approach beater BEAT xhitter hit xpusher PUSH xx is BEATEN by beater AG VERB PAPA is VERB-ed by AG

Constructivist approach Lexically-specific constructions help the child to bridge the gap between rote-learning and system building.

Similarity

Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre Gentner 1983)