Language Input LING/PSYC 370B Lecture Notes PDF

Language input L IN G/ P SYC 3 70 B J A NUA R Y 2 7 T H & 3 0 T H G A BR IE L LE M A NNI NG Roadmap Child directed speech Interaction and input 2 Linguistic input Parents and caregivers adapt their speech whe...

Language input L IN G/ P SYC 3 70 B J A NUA R Y 2 7 T H & 3 0 T H G A BR IE L LE M A NNI NG Roadmap Child directed speech Interaction and input 2 Linguistic input Parents and caregivers adapt their speech when interacting with children Speech from adults = quality input 3 Child directed speech 4 Child directed speech (CDS) Child directed speech: the register used by baby talk parents (and others) to speak to young children nursery talk motherese Input vs. interaction caregiver talk Input: language forms children hear input language Interaction: the way language forms are used in infant directed speech adult-child discourse parentese 5 Child directed speech (CDS) Child directed speech: the register used by parents (and others) to speak to young children Register: a variety of language used for a specific purpose in different situations CDS changes over time (e.g., tone of voice preference) Fine-tuning: changing our tone to fit the preference of a child’s emotional needs 6 Characteristics of CDS Exaggerated intonation, change of pitch, longer pauses, slower speech, repetition of child speech Changes occur at different levels: Phonology & phonetics Morphology & syntax Vocabulary 7 Phonology/phonetics, & CDS Phonological changes and exaggerations tend to occur with speech directed towards infants in the first year of life → infant-directed speech phoneme syllables pronunciation Lengthened syllables Pronounced with more clarity E.g., stretching out “hello” E.g., /t, d, n/ not fully pronounced when followed by /b, p, m, g, k/ Ten percent = tem percent 8 Phonology/ phonetics & CDS English, Russian, and Swedish /i/ condition 1 Expansion of vowel triangle – change in 2–5-month-olds frequencies when using IDS condition 2 /a/ Adult speakers /u/ Is there a benefit? 9 Kuhl et al. (1997)  Morphology/Syntax & CDS morphology syntax Morphological variety in CDS can be Simple, short, grammatical sentences – often beneficial incomplete E.g., minimize morphological Subject of CDS sentences tends to be an agent complexities with diminutives in Russian E.g., you’re dancing; Eve can get the banjo Semantic bootstrapping: children’s use of word meanings to learn syntactic structures 10 Repetition CDS is repetitive Repeat and expand on child utterances Caregiver: “Put the doll in her crib. Yes, the doll. That’s right, in her crib.” Help with syntactic structure? Child: “Milk.” Adult: “You want some milk?” 11 Vocabulary & CDS Conversations between adults and children are typically about the here and now Emphasis on concrete concepts Certain topics tend to dominate conversation: Family members Animals Parts of the body Food Clothing 12  Does help help with acquisition? (Ramírez et al., 2024) Consistent language complexity parentese and/or at a later stage in turn taking development? 44 children 6, 10, 14, 18, 24 months 5 years Naturalistic recordings % parentese Unique lexical types adult word count (AWC) MLU + conversational turn taking (CTC) child vocalization count (CVC) 13 Does help help with acquisition? (Ramírez et al., 2024) lexical diversity Parentese MLU (6– 24 months) conversational turn taking Conversational turn taking during infancy AWC Quality (and not quantity) of child directed speech can predict language outcomes 14 Universality CDS is used cross-linguistically MB1 MB1B IDS preference replication Preference of North American English IDS in bilingual infants Preference for IDS across various linguistic environments No difference in magnitude of preference Preference increases across development 15 Universality CDS is used cross-linguistically MB1L MB1A Re-tested children from MB1 IDS in African infants No relationship between IDS exposure Understudied population and vocabulary size Potential test – re-test reliability issues 16 Interaction and input 17 Television Does social interaction influence learning of phonemic contrasts? “live language” audiovisual Live language group = greater sensitivity to Mandarin sound contrast Social gating: when learning is enhanced through social interaction audio only English control 18 Kuhl, Taso, & Liu (2003) Vocabulary & input Varying amounts of linguistic input can impact word learning and vocabulary size Speech directed towards children can range from 200-3000 words/hour Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families hear less speech than high SES 19 Vocabulary & input Vocabulary acquisition and language processing in relation to SES Differences as early as 18-months between high and low SES families 20 Parental responsivity Babies as conversational partners Draw infants into communicative exchanges Basis for intentional communication (smiles) (vocalizes) (laughs) “What a nice smile you “Are you talking? Oh my “I know, wasn’t that so have! Are you happy?” goodness, tell me more! funny!” What a good story.” 21 Corrective input Recast: minor variations in Eve: Eve get big stool. repetition/imitation of child speech Mother: No, that’s the little stool New or unfamiliar information is more Eve: Milk in there. Mother: There is milk in there. readily assimilated by the child Eve: Turn after Sarah. Adults are responsive in during child-adult Mother: You have a turn after Sarah. conversation Brown (1973) 22 “no negative evidence” All language learners make errors No negative evidence: no information about what is and is not grammatical in the input children receive HOWEVER… Statistical learning Evidence for corrective feedback from parents (recast) Disapproval: express displeasure with ungrammatical utterances E.g., don’t say that; that’s wrong 23 Contrastive discourse Alex: I had all my breakfast and I drinked up all the milk Matthew: You drank the whole bowl? Alex: Listen to me! I was talked first Matthew: You weren’t talking first! (Saxton, 1995) Children are responsive to corrections when in direct contrast Alex: It’s even gooder than anything. It’s gooder, isn’t it? Matthew: Yes, it is better. Alex: Better, yeah. Matthew: What did he do? Alex: He wiped him. Matthew: He wiped himself. Alex: Yes, he wiped himself. Change can be seen weeks after being corrected – not always immediate 24