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The countering of overgeneralization.

Christine J Howe¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street, Glasgow G1 1QE, Scotland. c.j.howe@strath.ac.uk

Journal of Child Language

|December 11, 2002

Summary

Children

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Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Developmental Psychology
Linguistics

Background:

Construction grammar models propose children learn language structures from specific examples.
Tomasello's model suggests a progression from specific utterance-event pairings to abstract verb structures.
Existing models predict significant overgeneralization of verb argument structures during language acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate mechanisms that limit overgeneralization in children's acquisition of verb argument structures.
To reconcile theoretical predictions with observed language development data.
To evaluate the role of verb form class emergence in language acquisition.

Main Methods:

Analysis of theoretical models of language acquisition, specifically construction grammar.
Presentation of data from a new study involving 44 children aged 2;0 to 4;4.
Examination of processes that emerge as side effects of verb form class development.

Main Results:

The study identifies processes that counteract the overgeneralization of verb argument structures.
Data suggests these counteracting processes are linked to the emergence of the verb form class.
Observed tendencies align with predictions that limit overgeneralization.

Conclusions:

Processes associated with verb form class emergence play a crucial role in constraining overgeneralization.
These findings support and extend Tomasello's model of language acquisition.
The identified processes are largely consistent with Goldberg's construction grammar theory.

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