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Recent Advances in the study of Language Development

Recent Advances in the study of Language Development

Brian MacWhinney- CMUBrian MacWhinney- CMU

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TopicsTopics

Bases of SLIBases of SLI Assessment MethodsAssessment Methods Childhood bilingualismChildhood bilingualism Emergentism and Brain PlasticityEmergentism and Brain Plasticity Multimedia AnalysisMultimedia Analysis

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A unitary account of SLI?A unitary account of SLI?

Old unitary accountsOld unitary accounts Auditory STM deficit (Tallal)Auditory STM deficit (Tallal) Weak syllable loss (Leonard)Weak syllable loss (Leonard) Processing capacity (Kail, Kirschner, Gathercole)Processing capacity (Kail, Kirschner, Gathercole)

New unitary accountsNew unitary accounts RDDR (van der Lely, Clahsen)RDDR (van der Lely, Clahsen) Weak lexical storage (Chiat, Gupta)Weak lexical storage (Chiat, Gupta) Item-based models of sentence productionItem-based models of sentence production

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New models of the lexiconNew models of the lexicon

Sound -> meaning Sound -> meaning TurtleTurtle Phonological loopPhonological loop

ConstructionsConstructions X gives Y to ZX gives Y to Z What is X doing Z ?What is X doing Z ?

Making sentences: Making sentences: My __ , X likes Y, My __ , X likes Y, My dog likes bones.My dog likes bones.

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Applications to ChineseApplications to Chinese No Problems in No Problems in

Wh-movementWh-movement Agreement morphologyAgreement morphology Case markingCase marking

Similar problemsSimilar problems ComplementationComplementation ReflexivesReflexives

Special Problems in ..Special Problems in .. ClassifiersClassifiers Aspect markersAspect markers LexiconLexicon WritingWriting

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What is wrong with the lexicon?What is wrong with the lexicon?

Period 1: phonological encodingPeriod 1: phonological encoding Period 2: argument structurePeriod 2: argument structure Period 3: sentence compilationPeriod 3: sentence compilation

Note: this view tends to merge grammar and Note: this view tends to merge grammar and the lexicon (Bates and Goodman, 1999)the lexicon (Bates and Goodman, 1999)

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Assessment MethodsAssessment Methods

CDI Communicative Development InventoryCDI Communicative Development Inventory Mandarin done, Cantonese in progressMandarin done, Cantonese in progress Issues in maternal reportIssues in maternal report

Computerized reaction-time methodsComputerized reaction-time methods Battery of 9 tasks. Reaction time and STMBattery of 9 tasks. Reaction time and STM

Transcript MethodsTranscript Methods ProfilesProfiles MultimediaMultimedia WebWeb

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Childhood BilingualismChildhood Bilingualism

Early auditory developmentEarly auditory development Separation by prosodic types (Chinese, English)Separation by prosodic types (Chinese, English) Later separation within related languagesLater separation within related languages

Babbling differentiationBabbling differentiation Grammatical, lexical separation at age 2Grammatical, lexical separation at age 2 Parental responses to switchingParental responses to switching TrilingualismTrilingualism

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Research programsResearch programs

Yip and Matthews in Hong KongYip and Matthews in Hong Kong LIDES Project in EuropeLIDES Project in Europe German work on later interference, transferGerman work on later interference, transfer Montreal work on pragmatic supportMontreal work on pragmatic support

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Emergentism and PlasticityEmergentism and Plasticity

Nativism vs. EmpiricismNativism vs. Empiricism Emergentism vs. StipulationismEmergentism vs. Stipulationism

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Stipulation by RuleStipulation by Rule

Fragment of SPE Laxing Rule (Chomsky and Halle, 1968)

(I) AUXILIARY REDUCTION - I

V‡ ⎣⎢⎡

⎦⎥⎤- stress

- tense    / ⎩⎪⎨⎪⎧

⎭⎪⎬⎪⎫<VC

 0>⎣

⎢⎢⎡

⎦⎥⎥⎤____

αstress<+tens >e

 C10(=C

 0) ⎣⎢

⎡⎦⎥⎤βstress

V

⎩⎨⎧

⎭⎬⎫

⎣⎢⎡

⎦⎥⎤____

γstress

[l stress] C 0___C

 0[-con ]s

 [-stres ]s 0 #

  

Conditions: β=1,2,3α i  sweaker than βγ i  sweaker than 2

( )II V ‡ [- tense] / + ____ r + i[ -seg]

(III )2  V ‡ [- tense] / ____ [+cons] ⎣⎢

⎡⎦⎥⎤+cons

-voc

(IV)⎣⎢⎢⎡

⎦⎥⎥⎤V

αroundαback

‡ [-tense] / ____ C⎩⎨⎧

⎭⎬⎫C

 0+ic‚+id‚+ish

(C 1+)⎣⎢

⎡⎦⎥⎤-stress

V C 0[-cons]

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Geneticstipulation:Modules from birth?

Geneticstipulation:Modules from birth?

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Genetic stipulation: A gene for thepast tense?

Genetic stipulation: A gene for thepast tense?

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Neurons don’t send Morse codeNeurons don’t send Morse code

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Neural NetworksNeural Networks

units

weights

learning rule

activations

connections

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Hard-wired?Hard-wired?Hard-wired?Hard-wired?

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Emergent structure in Honeycombs Emergent structure in Honeycombs

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Structure in Ocular Dominance ColumnsStructure in Ocular Dominance Columns

Emergence of Oriented On-Off Neurons by Coarse Coding

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The Emergence of Language

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999

Elman, J. et al (1996)

Rethinking Innateness

MIT Press

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JUS Left parietal-frontal stroke JUS Left parietal-frontal stroke

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RYB Left frontal strokeRYB Left frontal stroke

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KAM Left temporal strokeKAM Left temporal stroke

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Sagittal section of one subject’s

injured hemisphere

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Z-score distributionsZ-score distributions

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Cou

nt

-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4Control Group

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Cou

nt

-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4Experimental Group

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16 regions of interest

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Sentence InterpretationSentence Interpretation

Easy (Conjoined)-- The cat chased the rabbit and enjoyed the hunt in the yard

Medium (SS) -- The principal that tripped the janitor used the phone to call home

Difficult (SO) -- The pig that the dog scared ate the trash in the street

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Sentence Processing -- Superior Temporal Gyrus

Adult, Child, SJ, BR,

MK, MM, GM, DK

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ConclusionsConclusions Prognosis is mostly optimistic, but status of Prognosis is mostly optimistic, but status of

late acquisitions (reading, math) is unclearlate acquisitions (reading, math) is unclear Careful rt studies reveal subtle differencesCareful rt studies reveal subtle differences Plasticity rather than modularity -- Plasticity rather than modularity --

reorganization contralaterally and locallyreorganization contralaterally and locally However, children with early strokes have However, children with early strokes have

some site-specific limitations in behavioral some site-specific limitations in behavioral measuresmeasures

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Computational AnalysisComputational Analysis

SALTSALT new versions, better interfacenew versions, better interface fuller profile (only Spanish and English)fuller profile (only Spanish and English)

CLANCLAN New measures VOCD, DSS, MORNew measures VOCD, DSS, MOR Profile facility coming soonProfile facility coming soon Link to PraatLink to Praat SALT-like fast analysisSALT-like fast analysis

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Multimedia AnalysisMultimedia Analysis

Use of F5 in CLAN for transcriptionUse of F5 in CLAN for transcription Video examples linked to textVideo examples linked to text PATSy (Edinburgh) case studies on the webPATSy (Edinburgh) case studies on the web CHILDES data on SLI childrenCHILDES data on SLI children Norms for inclusion in SALT and CHILDESNorms for inclusion in SALT and CHILDES

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Research Methods

SystematicDescription?

ManipulatingEnvironment?

CausationDeterminable?

HypothesisTested?

Introspection

TalkBank/CHILDES

Correlational

Model Fitting PsyScopeE-Prime

No Yes

NoYes

No Yes

No Yes

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IntrospectionIntrospection

Mental modelsMental models Grammaticality JudgmentsGrammaticality Judgments Native speaker intuitionsNative speaker intuitions Reflection- HermeneuticsReflection- Hermeneutics Functional Grammar and the Perspective Functional Grammar and the Perspective

HypothesisHypothesis