Mandarin learners use syntactic bootstrapping in verb acquisition

Cognition

Volumn 106, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 1028-1037

  Lee, Joanne N ^a   Naigles, Letitia R ^b  

^a WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT   (United States)

Author keywords

Cue to causativity; Language general; Mandarin Chinese; Number of arguments; Syntactic bootstrapping; Verb acquisition

Indexed keywords

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE; ARTICLE; CHINESE; COGNITION; FEMALE; GRAMMAR; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; LANGUAGE; LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT; LEARNING; MALE; PRESCHOOL CHILD; PRIORITY JOURNAL; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS; VIDEORECORDING;

CHILD, PRESCHOOL; CHINA; FEMALE; HUMANS; LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT; LEARNING; MALE; PSYCHOLINGUISTICS;

EID: 37249036979     PISSN: 00100277     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.004     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. Bowerman, M., & Brown, P. (in press). Crosslinguistic perspectives on argument structure: Implications for learnability. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2. Bunger, A., & Lidz, J. (2005). Constrained flexibility in the acquisition of causative verbs. Paper presented at the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA.
3. Cheung, H. (1998). The use of syntactic information in learning Chinese verbs. National Taiwan University Working Papers in Linguistics, 1.
4. China Social Science Institute of Linguistic College. (2001). Xiandai Hanyu Cidian [Modern Chinese dictionary]. Hong Kong, China: Shangwu Press.
5. Chomsky N. Lectures on government and binding (1981), Foris, Dordrecht
6. Fisher C. Structural limits on verb mapping: The role of analogy in children's interpretations of sentences. Cognitive Psychology 31 (1996) 41-81
7. Fisher C. Structural limits on verb mapping: The role of abstract structure in 2.5-year-olds' interpretations of novel verbs. Developmental Science 5 (2002) 56-65
8. Fisher C., and Gleitman L. Language acquisition. In: Pashler H., and Gallistel R. (Eds). Steven's handbook of experimental psychology. 3rd ed. Learning, motivation, and emotion Vol. 3 (2002), John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY 445-496
9. Fisher C., Gleitman H., and Gleitman L.R. On the semantic content of subcategorization frames. Cognitive Psychology 23 (1991) 331-392
10. Fisher C., Hall G., Rakowitz S., and Gleitman L. When it is better to receive than to give: Syntactic and conceptual constraints on vocabulary growth. Lingua 92 (1994) 333-375
11. Gleitman L. The structural sources of verb meanings. Language Acquisition 1 (1990) 3-55
12. Goldin-Meadow S. The resilience of language: What gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language (2003), Psychology Press, New York
13. Hirsh-Pasek K., Golinkoff R., and Naigles L. Young children's use of syntactic frames to derive meaning. In: Hirsh-Pasek K., and Golinkoff R. (Eds). The origins of grammar (1996), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 123-158
14. Hudson Kam C., and Newport E. Regularizing unpredictable variation: The roles of adult and child learners in language formation and change. Language Learning and Development 1 (2005) 151-196
15. Jackendoff R. Semantic structures (1990), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
16. Lee J., and Naigles L. The input to verb learning in Mandarin Chinese: A role for syntactic bootstrapping. Developmental Psychology 41 3 (2005) 529-540
17. Levin B. English verb classes and alternations (1993), University of Chicago Press, Chicago
18. Li C., and Thompson S. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar (1981), University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
19. Lidz J., Gleitman H., and Gleitman L. Understanding how input matters: Verb learning and the footprint of universal grammar. Cognition 87 (2003) 151-178
20. Naigles L. Children use syntax to learn verb meanings. Journal of Child Language 17 (1990) 357-374
21. Naigles L. The use of multiple frames in verb learning via syntactic bootstrapping. Cognition 58 (1996) 221-251
22. Naigles L. Form is easy, meaning is hard: Resolving a paradox in early child language. Cognition 86 (2002) 157-199
23. Naigles L., and Hoff-Ginsberg E. Input to verb learning: Evidence for the plausibility of syntactic bootstrapping. Developmental Psychology 31 (1995) 827-837
24. Naigles L., and Lehrer N. Language-general and language-specific influences on children's acquisition of argument structure: A comparison of French and English. Journal of Child Language 29 (2002) 545-566
25. Naigles L.R., and Swensen L. Syntactic supports for word learning. In: Hoff E., and Shatz M. (Eds). The handbook of language development (2007), Blackwell, New York 212-231
26. Naigles L., Fowler A., and Helm A. Developmental changes in the construction of verb meanings. Cognitive Development 7 (1992) 403-427
27. Naigles L., Gleitman H., and Gleitman L. Children acquire word meaning components from syntactic evidence. In: Dromi E. (Ed). Language and development (1993), Ablex, Norwood, NJ 104-140
28. Narasimhan B., Budwig N., and Murty L. Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 37 (2005) 461-495
29. Newport E. Reduced input in the acquisition of signed languages: Contributions to the study of Creolization. In: DeGraff M. (Ed). Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and development (1999), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 161-178
30. Rispoli M. Missing arguments and the acquisition of predicate meanings. In: Tomasello M., and Merriman W.E. (Eds). Beyond names for things: Young children's acquisition of verbs (1995), Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ 331-352
31. Thompson S., and Hopper P. Transitivity, clause structure and argument structure: Evidence from conversation. In: Bybee J., and Hopper P. (Eds). Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure (2001), John Benjamins, Philadelphia 27-60
32. Tiee H. A reference grammar of Chinese sentence (1986), The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ
33. Tomasello M. Do young children have adult syntactic competence?. Cognition 74 (2000) 209-253