Modelling Exposure and Input in Language Acquisition

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dc.contributor.advisorCarroll, Susanne
dc.contributor.advisorRitter, Elizabeth
dc.contributor.authorHracs, Lindsay
dc.contributor.committeememberAycock, John
dc.contributor.committeememberStoroshenko, Dennis
dc.contributor.committeememberGraham, Susan
dc.contributor.committeememberLidz, Jeffrey
dc.date.accessioned2021-12-23T21:23:50Z
dc.date.available2021-12-23T21:23:50Z
dc.date.issued2021-12-20
dc.description.abstractAcquiring the focus-sensitive particle 'only' requires children to integrate information from multiple different domains. Specifically, they must (i) segment and store sound forms and come to understand that constituents in Focus typically bear focal accent; (ii) figure out the linear and grammatical distribution of 'only'; (iii) figure out that 'only' introduces a restriction on a set of possibilities; and (iv) construct a set of alternatives. Previous examinations of this learning problem show that children exhibit non-target-like behaviour until later stages of development (Crain et al., 1992; Crain et al., 1994; Gualmini et al., 2003; Kim, 2011; Notley et al., 2009; Paterson et al., 2003; Paterson et al., 2006; Philip & Lynch, 2000). The difficulty children have is often attributed to either lacking requisite syntactic knowledge or the inability to construct a set of alternatives. Using a novel approach, the current project aims to shed light on the issues by investigating the role of exposure and input in the acquisition of 'only'. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical analysis from the perspective of Jackendoff’s Parallel Architecture (Jackendoff, 1997, 2002a, 2017), and argues that an approach which advocates for a direct interface between language and cognition can better account for the properties of 'only'. Chapter 3 offers a critical review of the previous studies along with an overview of the learning problem and a discussion of exposure and input. Results from the corpus study in Chapter 4 show that across development, the frequency of 'only' in caregiver speech is a significant predictor of the frequency of 'only' in child speech, and that the distribution of 'only' is similar in caregiver and child utterances. Finally, results from the modelling study in Chapter 5 indicate that learners are biased toward different distributional cues in the input, and that this bias changes over the course of development as a function of the learner’s grammar in combination with evidence corresponding to particular hypotheses about the interpretation of utterances containing 'only'.en_US
dc.identifier.citationHracs, L. (2021). Modelling Exposure and Input in Language Acquisition (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/39465
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/114224
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectlanguage acquisitionen_US
dc.subjectcognitive modellingen_US
dc.subjectcorpus linguisticsen_US
dc.subjecttheoretical linguisticsen_US
dc.subjectBayesian methodsen_US
dc.subjectinformation structureen_US
dc.subjectfocus-sensitive particlesen_US
dc.subjectexposureen_US
dc.subjectinputen_US
dc.subjectlanguage developmenten_US
dc.subject.classificationLinguisticsen_US
dc.subject.classificationComputer Scienceen_US
dc.titleModelling Exposure and Input in Language Acquisitionen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineLinguisticsen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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