Early child utterances

Sentence formulas

Children’s early utterance are sentence formulas that describe a limited number of (semantically defined) situation types. (Brown 1973; Schlesinger 1974)

Sentence formulas Kendall swim. Kimmy come. Doggie bark. Pillow fall. agent - action

Sentence formulas 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 - patient

Sentence formulas Hit ball. Put book. Drink milk. Eat apple. action - patient

Sentence formulas Play bed. Sit pool. Walk street. Come here. action - location

Sentence formulas Book table. Sweater chair. Ball floor. entity - location

Sentence formulas Kimmy bike. Daddy shoe. Adam foot. possessor - possessed

Sentence formulas Big train. Red train. Hot milk. modifier – object

Sentence formulas No milk. No water. No play. negation – object/action

Sentence formulas That doggy. It cat. There ball. This my spoon. pronoun – object

Sentence formulas What dat? Who dat? WH – pronoun

Sentence formulas Children’s early utterances are organized on semantic grounds. Grammatical relations and syntactic structure emerge only later. (Schlesinger 1974)

The pivot look

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 Item-based constructions

Block get-it.2;3 Bottle get-it.2;3 Spoon get-it.2;4 Towel get-it.2;4 Dog get-it.2;4 Books get-it.2;5 Item-based constructions

Spoon back.2;2 Tiger back.2;3 Give back.2;3 Ball back.2;3 Want ball back.2;4 Item-based constructions

More __. __ get-it. __ back. Children’s early multi-word utterances are lexically specific. [Tomasello 2000] Item-based constructions

No bed.1;11 No bread.2;0 No eat.2;2 No milk.2;2 No apple juice.2;5 Item-based constructions

Clock on there.2;2 Up on there.2;2 Hot in there.2;2 Milk in there.2;4 Water in there2;5 Item-based constructions

All broke.2;0 All buttened.2;3 All clean.2;4 All done.2;4 All gone milk.2;2 All gone shoe.2;2 All gone juice.2;2 All gone bear.2;3 Item-based constructions

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 Item-based constructions

Boot off.2;0 Light off.2;1 Hands off.2;1 Pants off.2;1 Hat off.2;3 Item-based constructions

Generative grammar

The generative view Adam book = Adam is reading a book. Adam (is) read(ing) (a) book. N AUX VDETN VP S NP VP

Pivot grammar

Martin Braine (1963): Children’s early utterances are composed of words from two word classes: 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 Relational expressionsother, more, allgone

Pivot grammar Four sentence types: 1. ODaddy 2. P + OThat cat. 3. O + PBook back. 4. O + OAdam book.

Pivot grammar P + O See boy See sock Pretty boat Pretty fan My Mommy My milk Allgone shoe Allgone egg More taxi More melon

Pivot grammar P + OO + P 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.

Pivot grammar P + OO + PO + O 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: 1. S  P O 2. S  O P 3.S  O O 4.S  O

The construction-based approach

Construction Grammar Grammar consists of form-function pairings, i.e. constructions. A construction is a complex linguistic sign that combines a specific form with a particular meaning.

Linguistic sign r{bIt

Passive Construction (1)The meal was cooked by John. (2)Mary was hit by the car. (3)The ball was kicked by Peter. (4)The book was written by John. NP be V-ed by NP PA verb AG

Caused-motion Construction (1)She dragged the child into the car. (2)He wiped the mud off his shoes. (3)She forced the ball into the jar. (4)He pushed the book down the chute. NP V NPPP (5)She sneezed the napkin of the table.

Resultative Construction (1)Peter meeked the bleek dizzy. NP V NPADJ

Transitive Grammar (1)Peter hit Mary. (2)Peter kicked the horse. (3)Peter pressed the button. (4)Peter pushed the elephant. NPVNP

Item-specific constructions help to bridge the gap between rote learning and grammatical development. Item-based constructions

First words Mommy Doggy Allgone goodbye Item-specific constructions More __. __ allgone. __ back. Schematic constructions NP V NP PP X moves Y somewhere Item-based constructions

Item-specific constructions help to bridge the gap between word learning (=route learning) and grammatical development (=system building). Item-based constructions They involve both object similarity and structural similarity.

Similarity

Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre Gentner 1983) Word learning involves object similarity (=recognition of the same phonetic substance). Grammatical development involves relational similarity (=recognition of relationship between words and categories).

Children are conservative learners

Brooks and Tomasello ;0-3;0 year olds Look, Jack is meeking the wagon.

Brooks and Tomasello ;0-3;0 year olds Look, the wagon is getting meeked.

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Look Jack is meeking the ball.

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Look the ball is meekd (by Jack).

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? (experimenter points to the car) That’s right, the car is going to get meeked. The car is going to get meeked by who? (eperimenter points to Big Bird) Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird. (while performing action) Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird? (experimenter points to the car) Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird. Item-based constructions

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? (experimenter points to Big Bird) That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car. Big Bird is going to meek what? (experimenter points to the car) Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car. (while performing action) Did you see who meeked the car? (experimenter points to Big Bird) Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car. Item-based constructions

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 What is Jack doing?

Brooks and Tomasello ;0-3;0 year olds What, happens to the wagon?

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Passive training Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? 855

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Passive training Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? 855 What is the AGENT doing? 4515

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Passive trainingActive training Passive response Active response Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? 855 What is the AGENT doing?

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Passive trainingActive training Passive response Active response Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? What is the AGENT doing?

Brooks and Tomasello 1999 Passive trainingActive training Passive response Active response Passive response Active response What happened to the PATIENT? What is the AGENT doing?

Xer BEAT y Network of constructions Xer DRAG yXer MEEK y x is beaten by y Agent VERB trans Patient NP V NP Patient is VERb-ed (by agent) NP V (by NP)