Productivity of Noun Slots in Verb Frames
Anna L Theakston1, Paul Ibbotson2, Daniel Freudenthal3
1School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
Cognitive Science
|January 22, 2015
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Language Acquisition
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Productivity is crucial for understanding language development.
- Verb frames and their noun slots are key areas for studying grammatical productivity.
- Assessing early language productivity requires nuanced measures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the flexibility and creativity of noun slot usage in early child language.
- To compare adult and child language productivity in specific grammatical contexts.
- To investigate developmental changes in children's grammatical representations.
Main Methods:
- Developed novel measures for assessing linguistic flexibility and creativity.
- Analyzed child-directed speech and child speech samples.
- Focused on 2-3-year-old English-speaking children and their caregivers.
Main Results:
- Observed varying levels of creativity and flexibility between adult and child speech.
- Differences were noted across different measures, verb frames, and developmental stages.
- Identified patterns related to verb frame semantics and conventionality.
Conclusions:
- Child language productivity shows developmental shifts.
- Early grammatical representations are dynamic and influenced by input and cognitive factors.
- Further research can refine understanding of linguistic creativity in development.
Keywords:
Child directed speechChild languageLinguistic productivityNoun argumentsTransitive constructionVerb acquisitionMore Related Videos
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