Syntactic bootstrapping - University of Pittsburgh



Psychology 1320: Language Development

Spring 2002 / Ganger

Review sheet for Exam 2

Posted on the web 3/18/02, 4:05pm

Distributed in class 3/19/02

Format (CHANGED SINCE ORIGINAL REVIEW SHEET)

Section 1: matching (20 points) (10-20 questions)

Matching of features to sounds with some terms and definitions mixed in

Section 2: different matching (20 points) (5-10 questions)

Match phonological processes to examples from child speech.

(see example below)

Section 3: Short Answer, 30 points (6 questions, 5 points each)

Section 4: Essay questions, 30 points (2 questions out of 3, 15 points each)

(see questions below)

TOPICS & TERMS

NOTE: Because we are saving a lot of the theoretical issues in phonological development until after this exam, there are not many essay questions from this topic area. Instead, more of the objective and part of the exam will be devoted to phonology, and more of the essay portion will be dedicated to the other material.

Syntactic bootstrapping

• Be able to explain the problem of learning from observation

• Be able to explain why verbs are particularly hard to learn from observation

• Linking

• Be able to describe and discuss implications of

o Gilette & Gleitman experiment with videotapes

o Fisher et al (1994) experiment with novel verbs

• Known differences and relationships among prosodic, semantic, and syntactic bootstrapping

Prosodic Bootstrapping

• Prosody

• Prosody as a cue to sentence structure (syntax)

• Infant Directed versus Adult Directed Speech

• Fisher & Tokura study

• Hirsch-Pasek studies

• Jusczyk studies

• Fernald & McRoberts critique of prosodic bootstrapping theory and experiments

Grammatical Development

• Transitional forms

• Meanings expressed in two-word utterances

• Morpheme

• Rich and poor inflection

• Order of acquisition of morphemes (Brown)

• Development of negation and questions

• Development of more advanced constructions

• Brown’s stages based on MLU. Rough ages and major accomplishments of each stage.

• Interpretation of MLU

Phonology

• Know consonant and vowel tables.

• Name a sound (symbol) given the featural description or give a featural description given the sound (symbol). (features include the place and manner of articulation as well as tenseness, roundedness, and voicing)

• Phoneme versus allophone

• Timeline of early phonological development (production only; perception NOT included on this exam)

• Influence of environment on babbling

• Be familiar with common (child) phonological processes (velar fronting, weak syllable omission, cluster reduction, and many more…). You shouldn’t need to memorize these per se, but you should be able to recognize them.

• Be able to look at a child’s pronunciation of an English word and produce the steps (phonological processes) the child went through to get to his pronunciation. Here is an example of this (in the format of Section 2 above) from an old exam:

Instructions:

• The questions below should be answered with the following choices (a-k).

• More than one of these choices may be true for any question. Use all that apply.

• Not all of the choices a-k have to be used.

• Words in quotes are written in English orthography. Words in slashes (//) are written in phonetic symbols.

a. consonant cluster reduction

b. assimilation to place of articulation

c. assimilation to manner of articulation

e. reduplication (possibly involving omission of one or more syllables)

f. weak syllable or weak vowel omission (“weak” means unstressed)

h. stopping

i. final consonant deletion

j. voicing (not by assimilation)

k. none of the above

1. N. Smith’s rule 16 (“Post-consonantal /l, r, w, j/ are deleted.”) is an example of _____.

The following examples were recorded from a child named Robert between 17 and 26 months of age or Rachel (from HW 1) between 2;3 and 2;9.

2. “snowman” pronounced as /mo maen/ is an example of _____.

3. “fork” pronounced as /bork/ is an example of ________.

4. “sleeve” pronounced /lib/ is an example of ________.

5. “outside” pronounced as /saI/ is an example of _______.

6. “drop” pronounced as /jap/ is an example of _______.

(Hint: think about the natural adult pronunciation of “drop”)

Essay Questions

Two of these exact questions will appear on the exam. You will be able to choose from 3.

GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS

As a measure of linguistic maturity, MLU is useful for certain purposes but it has limitations. When might MLU be a useful measure? When it is not useful? (That is, what can it tell you and what can’t it tell you?)

Describe the stages in the development of negation. Include examples.

Describe the stages in the development of wh-questions. Include examples.

Discuss some possible reasons why inflectional morphology has a protracted period of development in many children learning English.

BOOTSTRAPPING QUESTIONS

Prosodic bootstrapping (3 parts)

a. What is prosodic bootstrapping?

b. What features of prosody are potentially helpful and what could they help the infant learn?

c. Describe at least one reason why prosodic bootstrapping may not work (for example, one of Fernald & McRoberts' criticisms).

With reference to Hirsh-Pasek’s and Jusczyk’s research, discuss the use of prosodic information by infants and the major changes in what information infants pay attention to as they get older. Include specific abilities and ages.

Describe the differences among prosodic, semantic, and syntactic bootstrapping. Then describe how the three types of algorithms could work together in language development.

Syntactic bootstrapping. (3 parts)

Referring to the Fisher, Hall, Rakowitz, & Gleitman (1994) paper may be helpful.

a. Why, according to Fisher, Gleitman, and colleagues, is observation insufficient for determining the meanings of contrasts between verbs such as give and receive or eat and feed?

b. What information could a child use to differentiate the meanings of give and receive or eat and feed?

c. What evidence is there that children make use of this information?

Describe why verbs are harder for children to learn than nouns. Include at least two independent reasons.

Describe the Gilette & Gleitman experiment, which used videotapes of parents and children playing. How did they show that verbs are harder to learn from observation than nouns?

PHONOLOGY QUESTIONS

Describe the timeline of development of phonological production in children. Be sure to give a full description of each step.

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