The acquisition of simple sentences

One-word utterances / holophrases

Daddy. [Adam 1;4]

Mommy. [Adam 1;4]

Doggy. [Adam 1;5]

Goodbye. [Adam 1;5]

Allgone. [Adam 1;6]

One-word utterances / holophrases

Children‘s early one-word utterances are speech

acts.

There is no distinction between words and

sentences at this stage.

Sequences of one-word utterances

The child and her father are sitting at a table. The father is cutting peaches into pieces. After eating two pieces of peach, the child wants another one.

CHILD: Peach. Daddy. (Child picks up the spoon)

CHILD: Spoon. (Child gives both peach and spoon to her father)

CHILD: Daddy. Peach. Cut.

Sequences of one-word utterances

The child pretends to cook something on a toy stove.

CHILD: Cook. Baby.

MOTHER: Is the baby cooking?

CHILD: Pot. Meat.

Fundamental frequencies nonfinal words

197

243 245

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

one-word utterances sequences of one wordutterances

multiple-wordutterances

Duration of nonfinal words (polysyllabic words)

780

700

500

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

one-word utterances sequences of oneword utterances

multiple-wordutterances

Duration of nonfinal words (polysyllabic words)

780

700

500

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

one-word utterances sequences of oneword utterances

multiple-wordutterances

Sequences of single words

There is evidence that sequences of single words are often planned as single units.

1. intonation

2. duration

3. pauses

Sentence formulas

Kendall swim.Kimmy come. Doggie bark.Pillow fall.

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 and action

Agent and patient

Sentence formulas

Hit ball.Put book.Drink milk.Eat apple.

Play bed.Sit pool.Walk street.Come here.

Action and patient

Action and location

Sentence formulas

Book table.Sweater chair.Ball floor.

Kimmy bike. [That is Kimmy’s bike] Daddy shoe. [That is daddy’s shoe]Adam foot. [That is Adam’s foot]

Entity and location

Possessor and possessed

Sentence formulas

Big train.Red train.Hot milk.

No milk.No water.No play.

Modifier and object

Negation and object/action

Sentence formulas

That doggy.It cat.There ball.This my spoon.

What dat?Who dat?Where doggy?

Focus and object

Question word and (pro)noun

Sentence formulas

1. Children’s early utterances are grounded in the conceptualization of basic situations.

2. The acquisition of meaning precedes the acquisition of structure.

Pivot grammar

Martin Braine (1963; 1976): Children’s grammar consists of two types of words:

(1) pivot words(2) open class words

Pivot grammar

Pivot words:

Spatial particles up, off, backPronouns/deictics that, itPossessives my, yourCertain verbs put, take, seeCertain adjectives big, prettyOther relational terms other, more, allgone, bye-bye

Pivot grammar

O P + O O + P O + O

DaddyHiByebye

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 (Braine 1963):

S → O Daddy

S → P + O That cat.

S → O + P Book back.

S → O + O Adam book.

Constructivist approach

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

More car. 1;11More that. 2;0More cookie. 2;0More fish. 2;1More jump. 2;1More Peter water. 2;4

Constructivist approach

No bed. 1;11No bread. 2;0No eat. 2;2No milk. 2;2No apple juice. 2;5

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

Constructivist approach

Boot off. 2;0Light off. 2;1Hands off. 2;1

Pants off. 2;1Hat off. 2;3

Spoon back. 2;2Tiger back. 2;3Give back. 2;3Ball back. 2;3Want ball back. 2;4

Constructivist approach

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

All broke. 2;0All buttened. 2;3All clean. 2;4All done. 2;4

Constructivist approach

All gone milk. 2;2All gone shoe. 2;2All gone juice. 2;2All gone bear. 2;3

Constructivist approach

How do we characterize these utterances?

• They have meaning.

• They have structure.

• They do not have the structure of adult grammar.

• They are organized around concrete words.

Constructivist approach

Brooks and Tomasello (1999)

2,0-3;0-year olds

meeking = pushing a car-like vehicle up a slope.

Constructivist approach

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? (pointing to Big Bird)

That’s right, Big Bird is going to meek the car.

Big Bird is going to meek what? (pointing to the car)

Yes, Big Bird is meeking the car.

Did you see who meeked the car?

Exactly! Big Bird meeked the car.

Constructivist approach

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? (pointing to the car)

That’s right, the car is going to get meeked.

The car is going to get meeked by who? (pointing to Big Bird)

Yes, the car is getting meeked by Big Bird.

Did you see what got meeked by Big Bird?

Exactly! The car got meeked by Big Bird.

Constructivist approach

1. What did the AGENT (e.g. child) do?

2. What happened to the PATIENT (e.g. car)?

Constructivist approach

Active training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

12 88

What is the AGENT doing?

0 100

Constructivist approach

Active training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

What happened tothe PATIENT?

12 88

What is the AGENT doing?

0 100

Passive training

Passiveresponse

Activeresponse

85 5

45 15

Constructivist approach

beater BEAT x hitter hit x pusher PUSH x x is BEATEN by beater

AG VERB PA PA is VERB-ed by AG

Constructivist approach

Lexically-specific constructions help the child to

bridge the gap between rote-learning and system

building.

Similarity

Similarity

Children are initially more sensitive to ‘object

similarity’ than to ‘relational similarity’. (Dedre

Gentner 1983)