Early child utterances

Sentence formulas

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;3Bottle get-it. 2;3Spoon get-it. 2;4Towel get-it. 2;4Dog get-it. 2;4Books get-it. 2;5

Item-based constructions

Spoon back. 2;2Tiger back. 2;3Give back. 2;3Ball back. 2;3Want 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;11No bread. 2;0No eat. 2;2No milk. 2;2No apple juice. 2;5

Item-based constructions

Clock on there. 2;2Up on there. 2;2Hot in there. 2;2Milk in there. 2;4Water in there 2;5

Item-based constructions

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

Item-based constructions

Dat Daddy. 2;0Dat’s Weezer. 2;0Dat my chair. 2;1Dat’s him. 2;1Dat’s a paper too. 2;4That’s too little for me. 2;9

Item-based constructions

Boot off. 2;0Light off. 2;1Hands off. 2;1Pants off. 2;1Hat 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 V DET N

VP

S

NP NPVP

Pivot grammar

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 particles up, off, back• Pronouns/deictics that, it• Possessives my, your• Certain verbs put, take, see• Certain adjectives big, pretty• Relational expressions other, more, allgone

Pivot grammar

Four sentence types:

1. O Daddy

2. P + O That cat.

3. O + P Book back.

4. O + O Adam book.

Pivot grammar

P + O

See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon

Pivot grammar

P + O O + P

See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon

Shoe offShirt offDaddy doMommy doBlanket awayDaddy away.

Pivot grammar

P + O O + P O + O

See boySee sockPretty boatPretty fanMy MommyMy milkAllgone shoeAllgone eggMore taxiMore melon

Shoe offShirt offDaddy doMommy doBlanket awayDaddy away.

Mommy sleepMilk cupBaby 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 NP PP

<X causes Y to move somewhere>

(5) She sneezed the napkin of the table.

Resultative Construction

(1) Peter meeked the bleek dizzy.

NP V NP ADJ

<X changes Y such Y becomes Z>

Transitive Grammar

(1) Peter hit Mary.

(2) Peter kicked the horse.

(3) Peter pressed the button.

(4) Peter pushed the elephant.

NP V NP

<X affected Y>

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

Item-based constructions

First words

MommyDoggyAllgonegoodbye

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

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 1999

2;0-3;0 year olds

Look, Jack is meeking the wagon.

Brooks and Tomasello 1999

2;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 1999

2;0-3;0 year olds

What, happens to the wagon?

Brooks and Tomasello 1999

Passive training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

85 5

Brooks and Tomasello 1999

Passive training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

85 5

What is the AGENT doing?

45 15

Brooks and Tomasello 1999

Passive training Active training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

85 5

What is the AGENT doing?

45 15 0 100

Brooks and Tomasello 1999

Passive training Active training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

85 5 12 88

What is the AGENT doing?

45 15 0 100

Brooks and Tomasello 1999

Passive training Active training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

85 5 12 88

What is the AGENT doing?

45 15 0 100

Xer BEAT y

Network of constructions

Xer DRAG y Xer MEEK yx is beaten

by y

Agent VERBtrans Patient

NP V NP

Patient is VERb-ed (by agent)

NP V (by NP)