Essentials of L1 Acquisition

1. Essentials of L1 Acquisition SS 2007

2. When does language acquisition begin?

3. Early speech production • crying, coughing, noises • 2. babbling: babababa

4. Segmentation of the speech stream bidtopt … ftulis … kji li optert … • Phonological cues (e.g. pauses, intonation, stress) • Distributional cues

5. Segmentation of the speech stream ADULT: What’s that? CHILD: That’s a nana.

6. How do children acquire their native language? My research focuses on the kinds of learning abilities required to master the complexities of language. Three broad issues characterize my work. One line of research asks what kinds of learning emerge in infancy. A second line of research probes the biases that shape human learning abilities, and the relationship between these biases and the structure of human languages. A third issue concerns the extent to which the learning abilities underlying this process are specifically tailored for language acquisition. Related research concerns infant music perception, and the relationship between music and language learning.

7. Early speech perception English [ba] – [da] Hindi [Ôa] – [ta] Nthlakapmx [k’i] – [q’i] Werker ánd Tees (1984)

8. Eraly speech perception German [Y] – [u] Tür - Tour Polka and Werker (1994)

9. Early speech perception Japanese [l] – [r] Tsushima et al. (1994)

10. Early speech perception Phonemes are categories. Categories are mental constructs that underlie our perception of the world. There are everyday categories such as car and tree, and there are linguistic categories such as phonemes and noun phrases. What are categories good for?

11. Early speech perception Categories are shaped by experience: Every time a person encounters a particular entity it leaves a trace in memory.

12. Emergence of phonemic categories

13. Emergence of phonemic categories token cluster

14. Emergence of phonemic categories /t/ attractor /d/

15. Emergence of phonemic categories /t/ attractor /d/

16. Emergence of phonemic categories /t/ attractor /d/

17. Categorical perception Continuous perception Categorical perception

18. Categorical perception [p] [b] Liberman 1957

19. VOT voice obset time

20. VOT voice obset time

21. VOT voice obset time

22. VOT voice obset time

23. Categorical perception

24. Categorical perception Categorization is predetermined by constraints that coerce us to perceive continuous entities as discrete categories. Eimas et al. 1971

25. Pragmatic development Language is an instrument used to … • express anger • ask a question • promise someone to do something • warn somebody

26. Pragmatic development Language is learned in social interactions involving three important components: • speaker • hearer • things and events talked about

27. Pragmatic development Bühler 1934 Organon Model

28. Pragmatic development dyadic interactions

29. Pragmatic development Triadic interactions 9-months revolution Tomasello 1999

30. Lexical development • People daddy, mommy, baby • Animals dog, kitty, bird, duck • Body parts eye, nose, ear • Food banana, juice, apple • Toys ball, balloon, book • Cloths shoe, sock, hat • Household objects bottle, keys, bath, spoon • Routines bye, hi, uh oh, night-night, no • Activities up, down, back • Sound imitating words woof, moo, ouch, baa baa, yum • Deictics that

31. Lexical development 1;2 – 1;3 First words 2;0 100-600 words 9-10 words a day 6;0 14,000 words 18;0 50,000 words

32. Vocabulary spurt

33. Symbolic nature of language

34. Onomatopoeica buzz, murmur, hiss cock-a-doodle-doo

35. Grammatical development 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

36. Grammatical development 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

37. Grammatical development 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

38. Grammatical development Spoon back. 2;2 Tiger back. 2;3 Give back. 2;3 Ball back. 2;3 Want ball back. 2;4

39. Lexically-specific constructions More __ . __ get-it. __ back.

40. Lexically-specific constructions No bed. 1;11 No bread. 2;0 No eat. 2;2 No milk. 2;2 No apple juice. 2;5

41. Lexically-specific constructions Clock on there. 2;2 Up on there. 2;2 Hot in there. 2;2 Milk in there. 2;4 Water in there 2;5

42. Lexically-specific 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

43. Lexically-specific 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

44. Lexically-specific constructions Rote learning System building Item-specific constructions

45. Errors • Errors of omission • Errors of commission

46. Errors of omission Run away. 1;11 Drink milk. 1;11 Touch duck. 2;0 Wanna apple 2;0

47. Errors of omission Put __ in there. 1;11 Take __ away. 1;11 Push __ in there. 2;0 Kimmy do __. 2;1 Put __ on. 2;1

48. Errors of comission buy  buyed hit  hitted bring  bringed go  goed (wented) foot  foots (feets) child(ren)  childrens

49. Errors of comission Ritter  Ritters Zettel  Zettels Schlüssel  Schlüsseln Elefant  Elefänten Arzt  Ärzten Bruder  Brudern Esel  Esels Ball  Bäller Bild  Bildern

50. U-shaped development Overgeneralizations (2%) correct (2,6) correct (3;5)