Prof. K. Demuth TTh 2:30-3:50

CG 143

Language Acquisition

This course provides a multidisciplinary introduction to the problem of language acquisition, beginning with aspects of infant speech perception, and then investigating the acquisition of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexical semantics. The course takes both a theoretical and hands-on approach to learning about acquisition issues in these different domains, exploring the importance of input and implications for learnability theory, as well as many of the different methodologies used in language acquisition research (e.g. corpus based studies, experimental studies). Weekly activities will include readings, discussion, child observation, data collection/analysis, and a final project. CG 41 (Introduction to Linguistic Theory) or the equivalent is a prerequisite.

Syllabus

Sept. 7-9 Introduction: Learnability Issues

Readings: L Intro, Ch 1, 2

Sept. 14-16 Readings: L Ch 3, 4,

Guest Speaker – Chloe Marshall, UCL (phonology/morphology in SLI)

Sept. 21-23 Nature-Nurture Controversies

Readings: L Ch 6, 7, 8

Readings: L Ch 9.10.11

Sept. 28-30 Readings: L Ch 12, 13, 14

Practice Talks: Jae Yung Song (morphophonology) & Erin Conwell (syntax)

Transcription/Analyses due 30th, Reading for research proposal

Oct. 5-7 Readings: L Ch 15, 16, 17

Areas of Language Knowledge

Readings: L Ch 18, 19, 20 Abstract of research projects due 7th

Oct. 12-14 Readings: L Ch 21, 22, 23

Readings: L Ch 24, 25, 26 Proposals due 14th

Oct. 19-21 Readings: L Ch 26, 27, 28, 29

Readings: Phonological Development

Oct. 26-28 Readings: Prosody/Morphology Interactions

Guest Speaker – Katherine White (the phonology of the developing lexicon)

Outline & Bibliography for research projects due 28th

Nov. 2-4 Readings: Morphosyntactic Development

Work on Projects, (Nov. 4-7 BU Conference)

Nov. 9-11 Readings: Syntactic Productivity

Guest Speaker – Melanie Soderstrom (perception of grammatical morphemes)

Nov. 16-18 Readings: Bilingualism

Readings: Language Processing

Nov. 22 Dept. Colloquium Speaker: Joe Pater/UMass Amherst

“Constraining Phonological Exceptions: Theory and Learnability”

Nov. 23 Project Presentations

Thanksgiving

Nov. 30-Dec2 Guest Speaker: Sandile Gxilishe, UCT (Acquisition of Xhosa clicks)

Project Presentations

Dec. 7-9 Project Presentations

Project Presentations, Final Papers Due 9th

Book

Lust, B. 2004. First Language Acquisition: The Essential Readings. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Grade: Class Presentations &Discussion 30%

Data Transcription and Analysis 10%

Final Research Project Oral Report 30%

Final Research Project Written Report 30%


Readings

Phonological Development

Demuth, K. & M. Johnson. 2003. Truncation to subminimal words in early French. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 48 211-241.

Pater. J. & A. Werle. 2003. Direction of assimilation in child consonant harmony. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 48, 385-408.

Gnanadesikan, A. 2004. Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology. In R. Kager, J. Pater, and W. Zonneveld (eds.) Constraints in Phonological Acquisition. Cambridge University Press.

Pater, J. 2004. Bridging the gap between perception and production with minimally violable constraints. In R. Kager, J. Pater, and W. Zonneveld (eds.) Constraints in Phonological Acquisition. Cambridge University Press.

Prosodic/Morphology Interactions

Gerken, L. A. & Macinthosh, B. J. 1993. The interplay of function morphemes and prosody in early language. Developmental Psychology, 29, 448-457.

Demuth, K. 1994. On the 'underspecification' of functional categories in early grammars. In B. Lust , M. Suñer, & J. Whitman (eds.), Syntactic Theory and First Language Acquisition: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives, pp. 119-134. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lleó, C. & K. Demuth. 1999. Prosodic constraints on the emergence of grammatical morphemes: Crosslinguistic evidence from Germanic and Romance languages. In A. Greenhill, H. Littlefield, & C. Tano (eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, pp. 407-418. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Morphosyntactic Development

Allen, S.E.M. (In press) A discourse-pragmatic explanation for the subject-object asymmetry in early null arguments: The Principle of Informativeness revisited. In R. Shillcock, A. Sorace & C. Heycock (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third GALA Conference.

Deen, Kamil Ud. 2003. The acquisition of inflectional prefixes in Nairobi Swahili. Annual Review of Language Acquisition 3, 139-179.

Grinstead, J. 2004. Subjects and interface delay in child Spanish and Catalan. Language 80, 40-72.

Syntactic Productivity

Demuth, K. 1989. Maturation and the acquisition of Sesotho passive. Language, 65, 56-80.

Lieven, E. V. M., Pine, J. M. & Baldwin, G. 1997. Lexically based learning and early grammatical development. Journal of Child Language 24, 187-219.

Theakston, A L. 2004. The role of entrenchment in children's and adults' performance limitations on grammaticality judgment tasks. Cognitive Development, 19, 15-34.

Demuth, K., Machobane, M., & Moloi, F. 2003. Rules and construction effects in learning the argument structure of verbs. Journal of Child Language, 30, 1-25.

Bilingualism

Sebastián-Gallés, N. & L. Bosch. 2001. On becoming bilingual. In E. Dupoux (ed.), Language, Brain, and Cognitive Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 379-393

Lleó, C. 2002. The role of markedness in the acquisition of complex prosodic structures by German-Spanish bilinguals. The International Journal of Biligualism 6, 291-313.

Petitto, L. A., Holowka, S., Sergio, L. E., Levy, B., & Ostry, D. J. 2004. Baby hands that move to the rhythm of language: Hearing babies acquiring sign language babble silently on the hands. Cognition, 93, 43-73.

Language Processing

Trueswell, J. C. Sekerina, I., Hillm N, M. & Logrip, M.L. 1999. the kindergarten-path effect: studying on-lin sentence processing in young children. Cognition 73, 89-134.

Scherag, A., Demuth, L. Roseler, F. Neville, H.J. and roeder, B. 2004. The effects of late acquisition of L2 and the consequences of immigration on L1 for semantic and morpho-syntactic language aspects. Cognition 93: B97-B108.

Perfors, A., A. Fernald, K. Magnani, & V. Marchman. 2004. Picking up speed in understanding: Speech processing efficiency and vocabulary growth across the second year. Ms., Stanford University.

Possible Research Topics

Demuth English Corpora

• Acquisition of Coda Consonants

• Variable use of Schwa/Codas

• Acquisition of Consonant Clusters

• Consonant Harmony

• Truncation of 3-syllable words

• Acquisition of grammatical morphology (plural, 3rd p. sg., past, possessive)

• Acquisition of auxiliary verbs, subject/aux inversion in questions

• Pronoun Reversal (NAI and EVA, WIL?)

• The Phonological Structure of Word Play (NAI)

Demuth Sesotho Corpus http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data

• The development of null noun class prefixes: Class, AGR type, discourse context, definiteness

• Null objects - Thematic role, discourse context, definiteness, transitivity

• Null subjects - Overmarking of overt subjects/demonstrative pronouns, U-shaped curve

• Passives: Perfective, Adversity, Lexical Productivity (passive/active alternations, multiple frames)

• Acquisition of Tense & Agreement – null AGR in input, Object marking

• Finite vs. Infinitival Clauses – over marking of inf. with subject marking

• Acquisition of Causatives

Demuth French Corpora

• Acquisition of initial and final consonant clusters

• Acquisition of singleton word-final consonants – clusters

• Variable appearance of word-final schwa

• Truncation of 3-syllable words

• Consonant Harmony (on longer words – complexity issues)

Other Issues

• Bilingual Acquisition issues – phonology/morphology

• ASL Acquisition issues

• Acquisition issues in another language

• The phonology/morphology of stuttering