Wonnacott, Elizabeth (2011) Balancing generalization and lexical conservatism : an artificial language study with child learners. Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 65 (Number 1). pp. 1-14. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2011.03.001 ISSN 0749-596X.

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Abstract

Successful language acquisition involves generalization, but learners must balance this against the acquisition of lexical constraints. Such learning has been considered problematic for theories of acquisition: if learners generalize abstract patterns to new words, how do they learn lexically-based exceptions? One approach claims that learners use distributional statistics to make inferences about when generalization is appropriate, a hypothesis which has recently received support from Artificial Language Learning experiments with adult learners (Wonnacott, Newport, & Tanenhaus, 2008). Since adult and child language learning may be different (Hudson Kam & Newport, 2005), it is essential to extend these results to child learners. In the current work, four groups of children (6 years) were each exposed to one of four semi-artificial languages. The results demonstrate that children are sensitive to linguistic distributions at and above the level of particular lexical items, and that these statistics influence the balance between generalization and lexical conservatism. The data are in line with an approach which models generalization as rational inference and in particular with the predictions of the domain general hierarchical Bayesian model developed in Kemp, Perfors & Tenenbaum, 2006. This suggests that such models have relevance for theories of language acquisition.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Language acquisition, Lexicology, Lexicostatistics , Linguistics -- Statistical methods, Language and languages -- Word frequency, Vocabulary, Bayesian statistical decision theory
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Memory and Language
Publisher:	Academic Press
ISSN:	0749-596X
Official Date:	July 2011
Dates:	Date Event July 2011 Published
Volume:	Volume 65
Number:	Number 1
Page Range:	pp. 1-14
DOI:	10.1016/j.jml.2011.03.001
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit:	23 December 2015
Date of first compliant Open Access:	23 December 2015
Funder:	British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (BAPF), Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Grant number:	RES-062-23-0983 (ESRC)

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