刊讯｜SSCI 期刊《儿童语言研究》2023年第4-6期

JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE

Volume 50, Issue 4-6,  2023

Jounal of Child Language（SSCI一区，2023 IF:2.2，排名：45/194）2023年第4-6期共发文38篇，其中研究性论文35篇，报告3篇。研究论文涉及双语发展、语言学习机制、双语儿童语言习得、双语个体差异、儿童教育应用程序语言、指示词习得、语言障碍、填补词汇空白、动词屈折、双及物结构、句法引导、语用因素、所有格后缀、语言习得的计算建模、言语运动发展等。欢迎转发扩散！（2023年已更完）

往期推荐：

目录

ISSUE 4

ARTICLES

■Sources of individual differences in the dual language development of heritage bilinguals, by Johanne Paradis, Pages 793–817.

■Commonalities, differences, and differences that matter between monolingual and bilingual development, by Erika Hoff, Pages 818–882.

■Individual differences differentially influence language domains and learning mechanisms, by Vicky Chondrogianni, Pages 823–826.

■Individual Differences in Bilingual Child Language Acquisition: A plunge into a Complex and Dynamic Network, by Natalia Meir, Pages 827–831.

■ So many variables, but what causes what?, by Cécile De Cat, Sharon Unsworth, Pages 832–836.

■ Building on cultural and linguistic strengths and recognizing life challenges - a commentary on Paradis’ “Sources of individual differences in the dual language development of heritage bilinguals”, by Carol Scheffner Hammer, Pages 837–840.

■Infants aged 12 months use the gender feature in determiners to anticipate upcoming words: an eye-tracking study, by Giulia Mornati, Valentina RIVA, Elena VISMARA, Massimo MOLTENI, Chiara Cantiani, Pages 841–859.

■ Pseudo-relatives and restrictive-relatives in child Mandarin, by Chun-Chieh HSU, Pages 860–894.

■Language in educational apps for pre-schoolers. A comparison of grammatical constructions and psycholinguistic features in apps, books and child directed speech, by Joanna KOLAK, Padraic Monaghan, Gemma Taylor, Pages 895–921.

■ Acquisition of demonstratives in cross-linguistic perspective, by Holger DIESSEL, Sergei Monakhov, Pages 922–953.

■ Developmental language disorder in sequential bilinguals: Characterising word properties in spontaneous speech, by Fódhla NÍ Cheileachair, Vasiliki Chondrogianni, Antonella Sorace, Johanne Paradis, Vânia DE AGUIAR, Pages 954–980.

■ Filling lexical gaps and more: code-switching for the power of expression by young bilinguals, by Michelle K. Tulloch, Erika Hoff, Pages 981–1004.

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT

■ Inhibitory control and verb inflection in Italian preschool children, by Elena Gandolfi, Maria Carmen Usal, Laura Traverso, Paola Viterbori, Pages 1005–1021.

■Ditransitive structures in child language acquisition: An investigation of production and comprehension in children aged five to seven, by Anna-Lena Scheger, Jasmin M. Kizilirmak, Kristian Folta-Schoofs, Pages 1022–1039.

ISSUE 5

ARTICLE

■ Being pragmatic about syntactic bootstrapping, by Valentine Hacquard, Pages 1041–1069.

■The importance of modeling pragmatic syntactic bootstrapping, by Toben H. Mintz, Pages 1065–1068.

■Syntactic bootstrapping with clausal complements of adjectives, by Kristen Syrett, Pages 1069–1073.

■ There might be more to syntactic bootstrapping than being pragmatic: A look at grammatical person and prosody in naturalistic child-directed speech, by Naomi Havron, Alex De Carvalho, Mireille Babineau, Monica Barbir, Isabelle Dautriche, Anne Christophe, Pages 1074–1078.

■Leveraging language specific information, by Laura WAGNER, Pages 1079–1081.

■ Online processing of which-questions in bilingual children: Evidence from eye-tracking, by George Pontikas, Ian Cunnings, Theodoros Marinis, Pages 1082–1118.

■Rules and exceptions: A Tolerance Principle account of the possessive suffix in Northern East Cree, by Ryan E. Henke, Pages 1119–1154.

■The association between screen media quantity, content, and context and language development, by Haifa Alroqi, Ludovica Serratrice, Thea Cameron-Faulkner, Pages 1155–1183.

■Parents tune their vowels to the emergence of children’s words, by Lotte Odijk, Steven Gillis, Pages 1184–1203.

■Parents’ talk about conceptual categories with infants: stability, variability, and implications for expressive language development, by Ran Wei, Anna Kirby, Letitia R. Naigles, Meredith L. Rowe, Pages 1204–1225.

■Learning conversational dependency: Children’s response using un in Japanese, by Tomoko Tatsumi, Giovanni Sala, Pages 1226–1244.

■Subsegmental representation in child speech production: structured variability of stop consonant voice onset time in American English and Cantonese, by Eleanor Chooroff, Leah Bradshaw, Vivian Llivesay, Pages 1245–1273.

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT

■The production of /s/-stop clusters by pre-schoolers with hearing loss, by Julien Millasseau, Laurence Bruggeman, Ivan Yuen, Katherine Demuth, Pages 1274–1285.

ISSUE 6

ARTICLE

■Computational modelling of language acquisition: an introduction, by Titia Benders, Elma Blom, Pages 1287–1293.

■ Realistic and broad-scope learning simulations: first results and challenges, by Maureen de Seyssel, Marvin Lavechin, Emmanuel Dupoux, Pages 1294–1317.

■Neurocomputational modeling of speech motor development, by Andrew M. Meier, Frank H. Guenther, Pages 1318–1335.

■Building a unified model of the Optional Infinitive Stage: Simulating the cross-linguistic pattern of verb-marking error in typically developing children and children with Developmental Language Disorder, by Julian M. Pine, Daniel Freudenthal, Fernand Gobet, Pages 1336–1352.

■ Computational cognitive modeling for syntactic acquisition: Approaches that integrate information from multiple places, by Lisa Peral, Pages 1353–1373.

■How does linguistic context influence word learning?, by Raquel G. Alhama, Caroline F. Rowland, Evan Kidd, Pages 1374–1393.

■Literacy and early language development: Insights from computational modelling, by Padraic Monaghan, Pages 1394–1410.

■ The role of infinitival clauses in the dialogues of German-speaking children and adults, by Gisela Szagun, Barbara Stumper, Pages 1411–1435.

■Children’s engagement and caregivers’ use of language-boosting strategies during shared book reading: A mixed methods approach, by Jamie Lingwood, Sofia Lampropoulou, Christophe De Bezenac, Josie Billington, Caroline Rowland, Pages1436–1458.

■ Child phonological responses to variegation in adult words: A cross-linguistic study, by Marilyn May Vihman, Mitsuhiko Ota, Tamar Keren-Portnoy, Shanshan Lou, Rui Qi Choo, Pages 1459–1486.

■Do You Use Love to Make it Lovely? The Role of Meaning Overlap across Morphological Relatives in the Development of Morphological Representations, by Pauline Quemart, Julie A. Wolter, Xi Chen, S. Hélène Deacin, Pages 1487–1507.

摘要

Sources of individual differences in the dual language development of heritage bilinguals

Johanne Paradis, University of Alberta

Abstract Bilingual children are a more heterogenous group than their monolingual counterparts with respect to the sources of variation in their language learning environments, as well as the wide individual variation in their language abilities. Such heterogeneity in both individual difference factors and language abilities argues for the importance of an individual differences approach in research on bilingual development. The main objective of this article is to provide a review and synthesis of research on the sources of individual differences in the second language (L2) and heritage language (HL) development of child bilinguals. Several child-internal and child-external individual difference factors are discussed with respect to their influence on children’s dual language abilities. In addition, the emergent research on individual differences in bilingual children with developmental language disorder is reviewed. Both the theoretical and applied relevance of individual difference approaches to bilingual development are discussed. 

Key words bilingual development, individual differences, heritage language acquisition, second language acquisition

Commonalities, differences, and differences that matter between monolingual and bilingual development

Erika Hoff, Florida Atlantic University, USA

Abstract This commentary makes the argument that the child-internal and child-external sources of individual differences in bilingual development are much the same as the sources of individual differences in monolingual development. It makes the further argument that the operation of the child-external influences results in differences between monolingual and bilingual development in the rate and sometimes in the outcome of language acquisition. An argument is made for the scientific and practical value of understanding the differences between monolingual and bilingual development, and future directions for research are suggested. 

Key words bilingual development, individual differences, bilingual profiles

Individual differences differentially influence language domains and learning mechanisms

Vicky Chondrogianni, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh

Abstract Paradis’ (2023) keynote article is a timely documentation of the ongoing shift in focus within childhood bilingualism research from investigating the factors that modulate majority or second language (ML/L2) attainment (Chondrogianni & Marinis, 2011) to understanding the sources of variation that lead to minority heritage language (HL) maintenance. This shift of focus into individual differences (IDs) in bilingual performance across both languages reflects converging research carried out in the past twenty years reporting that, when learning barriers are not at stake, bilingual children can reach ML outcomes. It also aligns with research findings suggesting that ML educational or linguistic outcomes are directly related to the successful attainment of HL educational and linguistic milestones, which, in turn, reinforce the need for the HL to be supported.

Key words heritage languages, childhood bilingualism, individual differences

So many variables, but what causes what?

Cecile De Cat, University of Leeds & UiT Arctic University of Norway

Sharon Unsworth, Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen

Abstract Paradis’ keynote article provides a comprehensive overview of factors influencing bilingual children’s dual language abilities. It includes the ‘usual suspects’, such as input quantity, and also highlights areas requiring further investigation, such as cognitive abilities. As such, it will no doubt serve as a valuable basis for the field as we move forward. Paradis quite rightly points out that whilst some of these factors may be unidirectionally related to language abilities, suggesting causality, for many others such relations are bi- or multidirectional and as such, caution is required in interpreting them. In order to pinpoint the nature and direction of these relations (currently absent from Figure 1 in the keynote), more complex analytic techniques are needed, as Paradis herself notes: “The relations among attitudes/identity, input and interaction, and perhaps social adjustment and wellbeing, are likely to be complex; therefore, more complex analytic techniques are needed to understand the path(s) between family attitudes about the HL on one hand, and children’s HL outcomes on the other.” (Paradis, 2023: 19). In this commentary, we provide an illustration of how the complex relationships between the variables discussed in Paradis’s keynote article could be conceptualised within a causal inference approach. We offer a modest starting point by summarising key features of causal inference modelling and by illustrating how it might help us better understand what causes what.

Key words bilingual language development, individual differences, causal inference modelling

Building on cultural and linguistic strengths and recognizing life challenges - a commentary on Paradis’ “Sources of individual differences in the dual language development of heritage bilinguals”

Carol Scheffner Hammer, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA

Abstract Children growing up bilingually are often treated as a monolithic group; however, heritage language (HL) bilinguals constitute an extremely heterogenous group that vary due to a wide variety of factors. In her keynote, Paradis provides a thought-provoking analysis of the research literature and identifies key internal and external factors that lead to individual differences. Specifically, she identifies age of second language (L2) acquisition, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional wellbeing as important internal factors. She also discusses both proximal and distal external factors. Proximal factors include children’s cumulative exposure to L2 and HL, L2 and HL usage at home, and the richness of the L2 and HL environment. Distal factors involve education in HL, parent language proficiency, socioeconomic status (SES), and family attitudes and identities. In my commentary, I expand on Paradis’ keynote to include the role of culture, which I consider to be both an internal and external factor, and respond to her discussion of two external factors, the impact of SES and the role of the classroom environment.

Key words Dual language development, Individual differences, Culture

Infants aged 12 months use the gender feature in determiners to anticipate upcoming words: an eye-tracking study

Giulia Mornati, Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca

Valentina Riva, Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco

Elena Vismara, Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco

Massimo Molteni, Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco

Chiara Cantiani, Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco

Abstract We investigated online early comprehension in Italian children aged 12 and 20 months, focusing on the role of morphosyntactic features (i.e., gender) carried by determiners in facilitating comprehension and anticipating upcoming words. A naturalistic eye-tracking procedure was employed, recording looking behaviours during a classical Looking-While-Listening task. Children were presented with sentences and pictures of two objects representing nouns characterised by either the same gender (determiner was uninformative) or a different gender (determiner was informative). As expected, 20-month-old children recognised the target picture when this was named, and they were faster in the different-gender condition. Interestingly, 12-month-old infants identified the target picture only when presented with an informative determiner (different-gender condition). These results suggest that, as early as 12 months of age and with an improvement seen at 20 months of age, toddlers can extract and use determiner gender features to enhance comprehension and make predictions about upcoming words.

Key words early lexical comprehension, grammatical gender, online language processing, language acquisition, looking while listening

Pseudo-relatives and restrictive-relatives in child Mandarin

Chun-Chieh HSU, National Tsing Hua University

Abstract This study investigated why object-gap relative clauses (RCs) are dominant in early child Mandarin. We discuss how restrictive-RCs differ from pseudo-RCs syntactically and pragmatically, and examine how these two types of RCs are distributed in the RC utterances of ten children and their caregivers. The results showed that (a) Mandarin-speaking children produce many more pseudo-RCs than restrictive-RCs, (b) restrictive-RCs exhibit a subject-gap advantage and are dominantly headed, and (c) pseudo-RCs exhibit an object-gap advantage and are dominantly headless. We propose that the development of restrictive-RCs is mainly influenced by the structural factor, and that the extensive use of pseudo-RCs is attributed to the communicative needs of young children. Our findings also suggest that young children’s pseudo-RCs tend to have a subject-focus reading, and the object-gap dominance observed in the pseudo-RCs of child Mandarin is related to the head-final RCs and the special structural features of the cleft construction in Mandarin.

Key words Relative clauses, RC acquisition, pseudo-relatives, focus effect, child Mandarin

Language in educational apps for pre-schoolers. A comparison of grammatical constructions and psycholinguistic features in apps, books and child directed speech

Joanna Kolak, Department of Psychology, School of Health and Society, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, UK

Padraic Monaghan, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

Gemma Taylor, Department of Psychology, School of Health and Society, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, UK

Abstract Language in touchscreen apps could be useful as an additional source of children’s language input, alongside child directed speech (CDS) and books. Here we performed the first analysis of language in apps, as compared with books and CDS. We analysed language in 18 of the most popular educational apps targeting pre-schoolers and compared their language content to children’s books and CDS with respect to types of constructions and psycholinguistic features of words. We found that apps contained lower frequency words and had lower lexical diversity compared to CDS, and shorter utterances compared to books. Apps may thus provide an enriched supplementary form of input for young children, due to containing less frequent words. However, apps do not expose children to a high proportion of questions and complex sentences, both of which are crucial for supporting child’s development of structurally rich constructions.

Key words language in touchscreen apps, children’s books, child-directed speech

Acquisition of demonstratives in cross-linguistic perspective

Holger Diessel, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany

Sergei Monakhov, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany

Abstract This paper examines the acquisition of demonstratives (e.g., that, there) from a cross-linguistic perspective. Although demonstratives are often said to play a crucial role in L1 acquisition, there is little systematic research on this topic. Using extensive corpus data of spontaneous child speech, the paper investigates the emergence and development of demonstratives in three European (English, French, Spanish) and four non-European languages (Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Indonesian) between age 1;0 and 6;0. The data show that, across languages, demonstratives are among the earliest and most frequent child words, but their frequency decreases with age and MLU. As children grow older, they tend to use other types of referring terms (e.g., anaphoric pronouns) and other types of spatial expressions (e.g., adpositions). Considering these results, we hypothesize that children shift from using a body-oriented strategy of deictic communication to more abstract and disembodied strategies of encoding reference and space during the preschool years. 

Key words deixis and demonstratives, language acquisition, situated embodiment, spatial prepositions, third person pronouns

Developmental language disorder in sequential bilinguals: Characterising word properties in spontaneous speech

Fódhla NÍ CHÉILEACHAIR, Faculty of Arts: Neurolinguistics, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands

Vasiliki Chondrogianni, School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UKAntonella Sorace, School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UKJohanne Paradis, Faculty of Arts, Linguistics Department, The University of Alberta, CanadaVânia DE Aguiar, Faculty of Arts: Neurolinguistics, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands

Abstract The current study sought to investigate whether word properties can facilitate the identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) in sequential bilinguals by analyzing properties in nouns and verbs in L2 spontaneous speech as potential DLD markers. Measures of semantic (imageability, concreteness), lexical (frequency, age of acquisition) and phonological (phonological neighbourhood, word length) properties were computed for nouns and verbs produced by 15 sequential bilinguals (5;7) with DLD and 15 age-matched controls with diverse L1 backgrounds. Linear mixed modelling revealed a significant interaction of group and word category on phonological neighbourhood values but no differences across imageability, concreteness, frequency, age of acquisition, and word length measures in spontaneous speech. Outcomes suggest that group-level differences may not be apparent at the word-level, due to the heterogeneous nature of DLD and potential similarities in production during early L2 acquisition.

Key words developmental language disorder, sequential bilingualism, word properties, spontaneous speech

Filling lexical gaps and more: code-switching for the power of expression by young bilinguals

Michelle K. Tulloch, Florida Atlantic University, USA

Erika Hoff, Florida Atlantic University, USA

Abstract In this preregistered, longitudinal study of early code-switching, 34 US-born, Spanish–English bilingual children were recorded with a bilingual family member at 2;6 and 3;6, in Spanish-designated and English-designated interactions. Children’s Spanish and English expressive vocabulary and their exposure to code-switching were measured through direct assessment and caregiver report. The children code-switched most frequently at speaker changes; within-turn and within-utterance codeswitching were rare. By 3;6, switches to English were significantly more frequent than switches to Spanish. At both ages, Spanish proficiency was a negative predictor of the frequency of switching to English, but children’s degree of English dominance uniquely explained additional variance. Thus, children appear to code-switch not merely to fill gaps in their weaker language but to maximize their expressive power. Neither individual differences in exposure to code-switching nor in the interlocutors’ language proficiency were consistently related to the children’s rate of code-switching.

Key words code-switching, bilingualismlanguage dominance, Lexical Gap Hypothesis, longitudinal study

Inhibitory control and verb inflection in Italian preschool children

Elena Gandolfi, Department of Education Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy

Maria Carmen Usai, Department of Education Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy

Laura Traverso, Department of Education Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy

Paola Viterbori, Department of Education Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy

Abstract The study investigates whether Italian verbal inflectional morphology is associated with inhibitory control skills after controlling for receptive vocabulary and verbal working memory. A sample of Italian preschoolers aged 4;0 to 6;0 was assessed using a standardized inhibitory control task tapping two different inhibitory skills (response inhibition and interference suppression), and a morphological task requiring simple and complex inflections of verbs. The hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that working memory and the interference suppression scores were significantly associated with complex inflections but not with simple inflections of the verbs.

Key words verb inflection, inhibitory control, Italian preschoolers

Ditransitive structures in child language acquisition: An investigation of production and comprehension in children aged five to seven

Anna-Lena Scherger, TU Dortmund University, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Research unit of Language & Communication, Dortmund, Germany

Jasmin M. Kizilirmak, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Cognitive Geriatric Psychiatry, Göttingen, Germany

Kristian Folta-Schoofs, University of Hildesheim, Institute for Psychology, Neurodidactics & NeuroLab, Hildesheim, Germany

Abstract The aim of the present study was to investigate the acquisition of ditransitive structures beyond production. We conducted an elicitation task (production) and a picture-sentence matching task measuring accuracy and response times (comprehension). We examined German five-to seven-year-old typically developing children and an adult control group. Our data showed quasi-perfect performance in comprehension in adults and in those children who had already mastered ditransitives productively. However, children who had not yet mastered the production of ditransitives showed comprehension abilities preceding production abilities. Unlike adults, in the comprehension task children did not react explicitly before the end of the auditory stimulus.

Key words ditransitives, production-comprehension asymmetry, language acquisition, case marking

Being pragmatic about syntactic bootstrapping

Valentine Hacquard, University of Maryland – Department of Linguistics College Park, Maryland, United States.

Abstract Words have meanings vastly undetermined by the contexts in which they occur. Their acquisition therefore presents formidable problems of induction. Lila Gleitman and colleagues have advocated for one part of a solution: indirect evidence for a word’s meaning may come from its syntactic distribution, via SYNTACTIC BOOTSTRAPPING. But while formal theories argue for principled links between meaning and syntax, actual syntactic evidence about meaning is noisy and highly abstract. This paper examines the role that syntactic bootstrapping can play in learning modal and attitude verb meanings, for which the physical context is especially uninformative. I argue that abstract syntactic classifications are useful to the child, but that something further is both necessary and available. I examine how pragmatic and syntactic cues can combine in mutually constraining ways to help learners infer attitude meanings, but need to be supplemented by semantic information from the lexical context in the case of modals.

Key words attitude verbs, modality, pragmatics, syntactic bootstrapping

The importance of modeling pragmatic syntactic bootstrapping

Toben H. Mintz, Departments of Psychology and Linguistics, University of Southern California, USA

Abstract Syntactic bootstrapping is based on the premise that there are probabilistic correspondences between the syntactic structure in which a word occurs and the word’s meaning, and that such links hold, with some degree of generality, cross-linguistically. The procedure has been extensively discussed with respect to verbs, where it has been proposed as a mechanism for constraining the massive ambiguity that arises when inferring the meaning of a verb that is used to describe an event (Fisher, Hall, Rakowitz & Gleitman, 1994; Gleitman, 1990; Gleitman, Cassidy, Nappa, Papafragou & Trueswell, 2005). In her keynote paper (Hacquard, 2022), Hacquard focuses on classes of verbs for which inferences about meaning are arguably even harder, because they involve concepts that have no observable counterparts: these are attitude verbs such as think and want, and modals such as must and can. She walks us through, in meticulous detail, the limits of a purely syntactic bootstrapping mechanism, and she describes how augmenting syntactic information with pragmatic information, via PRAGMATIC SYNTACTIC BOOTSTRAPPING (Hacquard, 2022; Hacquard & Lidz, 2019), might address these limitations. The proposal is exciting, and the detail with which Hacquard works through these examples is impressive; she supports her arguments with behavioral experiments, corpus analyses, and two very targeted computational analyses. In this commentary I suggest that Hacquard’s proposal is laid out in sufficient detail such that a comprehensive computational modeling effort would be fruitful for evaluating and further developing her account.

Syntactic bootstrapping with clausal complements of adjectives

Kristen Syrett, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey – Department of Linguistics 18 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8554 United States

Abstract Like verbs, adjectives pose a challenge to the young word learner in that some – like red, round, rough, or rectangular – map onto properties that are detectable through the senses, while others – like ready, reasonable, or required – express abstract properties that have no reliable, physical correlate. Even for those adjectives whose properties are observable, how does a child know that one particular property is being highlighted above all others? The physical environment alone will not suffice. Just as with verbs, the child learning adjectives is faced with an inherent indeterminacy of meaning, which can only be resolved through the incorporation of cues originating from multiple sources.

Key words adjectives, syntactic , bootstrapping, semantics, word learning

There might be more to syntactic bootstrapping than being pragmatic: A look at grammatical person and prosody in naturalistic child-directed speech

Naomi Havron, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, Center for the Study of Child Development, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Alex DE Carvalho, Laboratoire de Psychologie du Développement et de l’Éducation de l’Enfant – LaPsyDÉ, Université Paris Cité, Paris, FranceCNRS, Paris, France

Mireille Babineau, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada

Monica Barbir, International Research Center for Neurointelligence (World Premier

Isabelle Dautriche, CNRS, Paris, France

Anne Christophe, CNRS, Paris, France

Abstract In ‘Being pragmatic about syntactic bootstrapping’, Hacquard (2022) argues that abstract syntax is useful for word learning, but that an additional cue, pragmatics, is both necessary and available for young children during the first steps of language acquisition. She focuses on modals and attitude verbs, where the physical context seems particularly impoverished as the sole basis for deriving meanings, and thus where linguistic cues may be particularly helpful. She convincingly shows how pragmatic and syntactic cues could be combined to help young language learners learn and infer the possible meanings of attitude verbs such as “think”, “know” or “want”. She also argues that, in some circumstances, syntax and pragmatics would need to be supplemented by semantic information from context – for instance, in the case of modals such as “might”, “can”, or “must”. We agree with Hacquard on the importance of the synergies between these different cues to meaning, and wish to add two other aspects of the input that might also be used by young children in these contexts. The aspects we describe can only be noticed when one analyzes concrete examples of what children hear in their everyday lives, something which Hacquard does very often in her work (e.g., Dieuleveut, van Dooren, Cournane & Hacquard, 2022; Huang, White, Liao, Hacquard & Lidz, 2022; Yang, 2022). Taking into account different cues for meaning would help the field go beyond current models of syntactic bootstrapping, and create an integrated picture of the synergies between different levels of linguistic information.

Key words syntactic bootstrapping, language acquisition, pragmatics, prosody

Leveraging language specific information

Laura Wagner, Ohio State University, USA

Abstract Meaning comes in different shapes and sizes. Content words like parrot and persimmon and perambulate convey some important – and very specific – kinds of meanings. But the kinds of meaning that syntactic structures encode are of a different sort. They are more general and abstract than those kinds of words, and they are linked to the underlying organization of language. The essential insight behind syntactic bootstrapping is that children can leverage the way that structural elements connect to abstract meanings to help them acquire the more specific kinds of meanings in the content words.

Key words Syntactic Bootstrapping, scalar implicature, word learning

Online processing of which-questions in bilingual children: Evidence from eye-tracking

George Pontilas, School of Psychology and Clinical Languages Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

Ian Cunnings, School of Psychology and Clinical Languages Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

Theodoros Marinis, School of Psychology and Clinical Languages Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

Abstract An emergent debate surrounds the nature of language processing in bilingual children as an extension of broader questions about their morphosyntactic development in comparison to monolinguals, with the picture so far being nuanced. This paper adds to this debate by investigating the processing of morphosyntactically complex which–questions (e.g., Which bear is chasing the camel?) using the visual world paradigm and is the first study to examine the online processing of such questions in bilingual children. For both groups, object which-questions were more difficult than subject which-questions, due to an initial misinterpretation that needed to be reanalysed. Both groups were aided by number mismatch between the two nouns in the sentence, especially in object which-questions. Our findings are in line with previous studies that have shown a slower processing speed in bilingual children relative to monolinguals but qualitatively similar patterns.

Key words sentence processing, childhood bilingualism, eye-tracking, wh-questions, morphosyntax

Rules and exceptions: A Tolerance Principle account of the possessive suffix in Northern East Cree

Ryan E. Henke, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Abstract Debate around inflectional morphology in language acquisition has contrasted various rule- versus analogy-based approaches. This paper tests the rule-based Tolerance Principle (TP) against a new type of pattern in the acquisition of the possessive suffix -im in Northern East Cree. When possessed, each noun type either requires or disallows the suffix, which has a complex distribution throughout the lexicon. Using naturalistic video data from one adult and two children – Ani (2;01–4;03) and Daisy (3;08–5;10) – this paper presents two studies. Study 1 applies the TP to the input to extrapolate two possible sets of nested rules for -im and make predictions for child speech. Study 2 tests these predictions and finds that each child’s production of possessives over time is largely consistent with the predictions of the TP. This paper finds the TP can account for the acquisition of the possessive suffix and discusses implications for language science and Cree language communities. 

Key words Inflection, morphology, possession, rules, defaults

The association between screen media quantity, content, and context and language development

Haifa Alroqi, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, UK

Ludovica Serratrice, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK

Thea Cameron-Faulkner, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, UK

Abstract This study investigates the influence of the quantity, content, and context of screen media use on the language development of 85 Saudi children aged 1 to 3 years. Surveys and weekly event-based diaries were employed to track children’s screen use patterns. Language development was assessed using JISH Arabic Communicative Development Inventory (JACDI). Findings indicate that the most significant predictor of expressive and receptive vocabulary in 12- to 16-month-olds was screen media context (as measured by the frequency of interactive joint media engagements). In older children (17- to 36-month-olds), more screen time (as measured by the amount of time spent using screens, the prevalence of background TV at home, and the onset age of screen use) had the highest negative impact on expressive vocabulary and mean length of utterance. These findings support health recommendations on the negative effects of excessive screen time and the positive effects of co-viewing media with children.

Key words screen time, co-viewing, vocabulary, language development, media use, toddlers, children

Parents tune their vowels to the emergence of children’s words

Lotte Odijk, University of Antwerp, Computational Linguistics & Psycholinguistics (CLiPS) Research Center, Belgium

Steven Gillis, University of Antwerp, Computational Linguistics & Psycholinguistics (CLiPS) Research Center, Belgium

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the acoustic vowel space area in infant directed speech (IDS). The research question is whether the vowel space is expanded or remains constant in IDS. A corpus of spontaneous interactions of 9 dyads followed monthly from the age of 6 to 24 months was analyzed. The occurrences in the parents’ speech of each word that the children eventually acquired were extracted. The surface of the vowel triangle and the convex hull of all vowels were computed. The main result is that the development of the vowel space in IDS follows an inverted U-shaped curve: the vowel space starts relatively small, gradually increases as the child’s first word use approaches, and decreases again afterwards. These findings show that parents adapt their articulation to the evolving linguistic abilities of their child, and this adaptation can be detected at the level of individual lexical items.

Key words infant directed speech, word acquisition, language development, vowel surface area

Parents’ talk about conceptual categories with infants: stability, variability, and implications for expressive language development

Ran Wei, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, MA, USA

Anna Kirby, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA

Letitia R. Naigles, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

Meredith L. Rowe, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA

Abstract Children’s exposure to talk about conceptual categories plays a powerful role in shaping their conceptual development. However, it remains unclear when parents begin to talk about categories with young children and whether such talk relates to children’s language skills. This study examines relations between parents’ talk about conceptual categories and infants’ expressive language development. Forty-seven parent-infant dyads were videotaped playing together at child age 10, 12, 14, and 16 months. Transcripts of interactions were analyzed to identify parents’ talk about conceptual categories. Children’s expressive language development was assessed at 18 months. Findings indicate that parents indeed talked about conceptual categories with infants and that talk was stable across time, with college-educated parents producing more than non-college-educated parents. Further, parents’ talk about conceptual categories between 10 and 16 months predicted children’s 18-month expressive language. This study sheds new light on mechanisms through which early experiences may support children’s language development.

Key words generics, parental input, infants

Learning conversational dependency: Children’s response using un in Japanese

Tomoko Tatsumi, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

Giovanni Sala, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan

Abstract This study investigates how Japanese-speaking children learn interactional dependencies in conversations that determine the use of un, a token typically used as a positive response for yes-no questions, backchannel, and acknowledgement. We hypothesise that children learn to produce un appropriately by recognising different types of cues occurring in the immediately preceding turns. We built a set of generalised linear models on the longitudinal conversation data from seven children aged 1 to 5 years and their caregivers. Our models revealed that children not only increased their un production, but also learned to attend relevant cues in the preceding turns to understand when to respond by producing un. Children increasingly produced un when their interlocutors asked a yes-no question or signalled the continuation of their own speech. These results illustrate how children learn the probabilistic dependency between adjacent turns, and become able to participate in conversational interactions.

Key words child language, adjacency, conversation, statistical modelling, Japanese, corpus

Subsegmental representation in child speech production: structured variability of stop consonant voice onset time in American English and Cantonese

Eleanor Chodroff, University of York, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, York, UK

Leah Bradshaw, University of Zurich, Institute of Computational Linguistics, Zurich, Switzerland

Vivian Livesay, Mount Holyoke College, Department of Psychology and Education, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract Voice onset time (VOT) of aspirated stop consonants is marked by variability and systematicity in adult speech production. The present study investigated variability and systematicity of voiceless aspirated stop VOT from 161 two- to five-year-old talkers of American English and Cantonese. Overall, many aspects of child VOT productions parallel adult patterns, the analysis of which can help inform our understanding of early speech production. For instance, VOT means were comparable between children and adults, despite greater variability. Further, across children in both languages, talker-specific VOT means were strongly correlated between [th] and [kh]. This correlation may reflect a constraint of “target uniformity” that minimizes variation in the phonetic realization of a shared distinctive feature. Therefore findings suggest that target uniformity is not merely a product of a mature grammar, but may instead shape speech production representations in children as young as two years of age.

Key words speech production, stop voice onset time, subsegmental detail

The production of /s/-stop clusters by pre-schoolers with hearing loss

Julien Millasseau, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, 16 University Avenue, Australian Hearing Hub, North Ryde, NSW 2109 Australia

Laurence Bruggeman, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, 16 University Avenue, Australian Hearing Hub, North Ryde, NSW 2109 Australia

Ivan Yuen, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, 16 University Avenue, Australian Hearing Hub, North Ryde, NSW 2109 Australia

Katherine Demuth, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, 16 University Avenue, Australian Hearing Hub, North Ryde, NSW 2109 Australia

Abstract Producing word-initial /s/-stop clusters can be a challenge for English-speaking pre-schoolers. For children with hearing loss (HL), fricatives can be also difficult to perceive, raising questions about their production and representation of /s/-stop clusters. The goal of this study was therefore to determine if pre-schoolers with HL can produce and represent the /s/ in word-initial /s/-stop clusters, and to compare this to their normal hearing (NH) peers. Based on both acoustic and perceptual analysis, we found that children with HL had little /s/-omission, suggesting that their phonological representation of these clusters closely aligns with that of their NH peers.

Key words /s/-stop clusters, children, hearing losss, peech production

Realistic and broad-scope learning simulations: first results and challenges

Maureen de Seyssel, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique, Département d’Études Cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University, Paris, France

Marvin Lavechin, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique, Département d’Études Cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University, Paris, France

Emmanuel Dupoux, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique, Département d’Études Cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University, Paris, France

Abstract There is a current ‘theory crisis’ in language acquisition research, resulting from fragmentation both at the level of the approaches and the linguistic level studied. We identify a need for integrative approaches that go beyond these limitations, and propose to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of current theoretical approaches of language acquisition. In particular, we advocate that language learning simulations, if they integrate realistic input and multiple levels of language, have the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of language acquisition. We then review recent results obtained through such language learning simulations. Finally, we propose some guidelines for the community to build better simulations.

Key words Language acquisition, computational modelling, phonetic learning, word learning, phonetic categories

Neurocomputational modeling of speech motor development

Andrew M. Meier, Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215

Frank H. Guenther, Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215

Abstract This review describes a computational approach for modeling the development of speech motor control in infants. We address the development of two levels of control: articulation of individual speech sounds (defined here as phonemes, syllables, or words for which there is an optimized motor program) and production of sound sequences such as phrases or sentences. We describe the DIVA model of speech motor control and its application to the problem of learning individual sounds in the infant’s native language. Then we describe the GODIVA model, an extension of DIVA, and how chunking of frequently produced phoneme sequences is implemented within it.

Key words Speech motor control, computational neural modeling, speech development, motor-sequence learning, speech production

Building a unified model of the Optional Infinitive Stage: Simulating the cross-linguistic pattern of verb-marking error in typically developing children and children with Developmental Language Disorder

Julian M. Pine, University of Liverpool

Daniel Freudenthal, ESRC International, Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD)

Fernand Gobet, London School of Economics and Political ScienceESRC International, Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD)

Abstract Verb-marking errors are a characteristic feature of the speech of typically-developing (TD) children and are particularly prevalent in the speech of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). However, both the pattern of verb-marking error in TD children and the pattern of verb-marking deficit in DLD vary across languages and interact with the semantic and syntactic properties of the language being learned. In this paper, we review work using a computational model called MOSAIC. We show how this work allows us to understand several features of the cross-linguistic data that are otherwise difficult to explain. We also show how discrepancies between the developmental data and the quantitative predictions generated by MOSAIC can be used to identify weaknesses in our current understanding and lead to further theory development; and how the resulting model (MOSAIC+) helps us understand differences in the cross-linguistic patterning of verb-marking errors in TD children and children with DLD.

Key words optional infinitive stage, verb-marking errors, developmental language disorder

Computational cognitive modeling for syntactic acquisition: Approaches that integrate information from multiple places

Lisa Pearl, University of California, Irvine

Abstract Computational cognitive modeling is a tool we can use to evaluate theories of syntactic acquisition. Here, I review several models implementing theories that integrate information from both linguistic and non-linguistic sources to learn different types of syntactic knowledge. Some of these models additionally consider the impact of factors coming from children’s developing non-linguistic cognition. I discuss some existing child behavioral work that can inspire future model-building, and conclude by considering more specifically how to build better models of syntactic acquisition.

Key words Computational modeling, Syntax, Syntactic acquisition, Non-syntactic information, Nonlinguistic information

How does linguistic context influence word learning?

Raquel G. Alhama, Department of Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Caroline F. Rowland, Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands

Evan Kidd, Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands

Abstract While there are well-known demonstrations that children can use distributional information to acquire multiple components of language, the underpinnings of these achievements are unclear. In the current paper, we investigate the potential pre-requisites for a distributional learning model that can explain how children learn their first words. We review existing literature and then present the results of a series of computational simulations with Vector Space Models, a type of distributional semantic model used in Computational Linguistics, which we evaluate against vocabulary acquisition data from children. We focus on nouns and verbs, and we find that: (i) a model with flexibility to adjust for the frequency of events provides a better fit to the human data, (ii) the influence of context words is very local, especially for nouns, and (iii) words that share more contexts with other words are harder to learn.

Key words Word learning, Vector Space Models, semantic networks

Literacy and early language development: Insights from computational modelling

Padraic Monaghan, Lancaster University, UK

Abstract Computational models of reading have tended to focus on the cognitive requirements of mapping among written, spoken, and meaning representations of individual words in adult readers. Consequently, the alignment of these computational models with behavioural studies of reading development has to date been limited. Models of reading have provided us with insights into the architecture of the reading system, and these have recently been extended to investigate literacy development, and the early language skills that influence children’s reading. These models show us: how learning to read builds on early language skills, why various reading interventions might be more or less effective for different children, and how reading develops across different languages and writing systems. Though there is growing alignment between descriptive models of reading behaviour and computational models, there remains a gap, and I lay out the groundwork for how translation may become increasingly effective through future modelling work.

Key words literacy development, computational modelling, oral language, phonological development, vocabulary, comprehension

The role of infinitival clauses in the dialogues of German-speaking children and adults

Gisela Szagun, Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany

Barbara Stumper, Jade University of Applied Sciences, Oldenburg, Germany

Abstract The present study aims at analysing the role of infinitival clauses (INFCs) in German child-adult dialogue. In German subject-less INFCs are a grammatical sentence pattern. Extensive corpora of spontaneous speech between 6 children aged 1;5 to 2;10 and adults were analysed applying structural and contextual analyses. We extended Freudenthal, Pine and Gobet’s (2010) model of lexically specific learning to include INFCs in adult input. Results show that frequencies of adult INFC and MOD+INF clauses are related to child INFCs. We interpret these results as reflecting shared verb vocabulary and, regarding INFCs, as an adaptation of adult CDS to child grammatical structure. While most child INFCs have modal meaning, some occur in non-modal contexts. The majority of child INFCs are subject-less clauses with final infinitives and therefore grammatical. Results are discussed in terms of the pragmatic function of child and adult INFCs and the role of adult INFCs in German CDS.

Key words Infinitival clauses, German, child-adult dialogue, contextual analysis

Children’s engagement and caregivers’ use of language-boosting strategies during shared book reading: A mixed methods approach

Jamie Lingwood, Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, UK

Sofia Lampropoulou, Department of English, University of Liverpool, UKChristophe De Bezenac, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology (ISMIB), University of LiverpoolJosie Billington, Department of English, University of Liverpool, UKCaroline Rowland, Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, UK

Abstract For shared book reading to be effective for language development, the adult and child need to be highly engaged. The current paper adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate caregiver’s language-boosting behaviours and children’s engagement during shared book reading. The results revealed there were more instances of joint attention and caregiver’s use of prompts during moments of higher engagement. However, instances of most language-boosting behaviours were similar across episodes of higher and lower engagement. Qualitative analysis assessing the link between children’s engagement and caregiver’s use of speech acts, revealed that speech acts do seem to contribute to high engagement, in combination with other aspects of the interaction.

Key words shared book reading, engagement

Child phonological responses to variegation in adult words: A cross-linguistic study

Marilyn May Vihman, University of York, UK

Mitsuhiko OTA, University of Edinburgh, UK

Tamar KEREN-Portnoy, University of York, UK

Shanshan Lou, University of York, UK

Rui Qi Choo, University of York, UK

Abstract Variegation – the presence of more than one supraglottal consonant per word – is a key challenge for children as they increase their expressive vocabulary toward the end of the single-word period. Here we consider the prosodic structures of target words and child forms in English, Finnish, French, Japanese and Mandarin to determine whether children learning these languages respond similarly to the challenge or instead differ in ways related to the phonological structure of the adult language. Based on proportional occurrence of each structure, we find that the word forms of children learning Mandarin and Japanese show more variegation than do those of children learning the European languages, although their target words do not; proportions of reduplication, consonant harmony and single-consonant words also differ by language. We conclude that experience with the structure of the language – and thus representation, as well as immature articulatory skills – shapes children’s responses to variegation.

Key words phonological development， word production， variegation， reduplication， consonant

Do You Use Love to Make it Lovely? The Role of Meaning Overlap across Morphological Relatives in the Development of Morphological Representations

Pauline Quemart, Université de Poitiers, Université de Tours, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

Julie A. Wolter, School of Speech, Language, Hearing and Occupational Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, United States of America

Xi Chen, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

S. Hélène Deacon, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract We examined whether and how the degree of meaning overlap between morphologically related words influences sentence plausibility judgment in children. In two separate studies with kindergarten and second-graders, English-speaking and French-speaking children judged the plausibility of sentences that included two paired target words. Some of these word pairs were morphologically related, across three conditions with differing levels of meaning overlap: low (wait-waiter), moderate (fold-folder) and high (farm-farmer). In another two conditions, word pairs were related only by phonology (rock-rocket) or semantics (car-automobile). Children in both ages and languages demonstrated higher plausibility scores as meaning overlap increased between morphologically related words. Further, kindergarten children rated sentences that included word pairs with phonological overlap as more plausible than second-grade children, while second-grade children rated those with high meaning overlap as more plausible than kindergarten children. We interpret these findings in light of current models of morphological development.

Key words morphological representations, language acquisition, sentence plausibility judgment, meaning overlap, cross-language study

期刊简介

A key publication in the field, Journal of Child Language publishes articles on all aspects of the scientific study of language behaviour in children, the principles which underlie it, and the theories which may account for it. The international range of authors and breadth of coverage allow the journal to forge links between many different areas of research including psychology, linguistics, cognitive science and anthropology. This interdisciplinary approach spans a wide range of interests: phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and any other recognised facet of language study. Aspects of reading development are considered when there is a clear language component. The journal normally publishes full-length empirical studies or General Articles as well as shorter Brief Research Reports. To be appropriate for this journal, articles should include some quantitative data analyses, and articles based on case studies need to have a convincing rationale for this design. The journal publishes thematic special issues on occasion, the topic and format of which are determined by the editorial team.

作为该领域的一个重要出版物，《儿童语言研究》发表了关于儿童语言行为科学研究的所有方面的文章，其基础原则，以及可能解释语言行为的理论。国际范围的作者和广泛的覆盖面使该杂志能够在许多不同的研究领域之间建立联系，包括心理学，语言学，认知科学和人类学。这种跨学科的方法跨越了广泛的兴趣：语音学，语音学、形态学、句法学、词汇学、语义学、语用学、社会语言学，以及任何其他公认的语言研究方面。当有一个明确的语言组成部分时，阅读发展的各个方面被考虑。该杂志通常出版完整长度的实证研究或一般文章以及较短的简要研究报告。为了适合这个杂志，文章应该包括一些定量的数据分析，基于案例研究的文章需要有一个令人信服的设计理由。本刊有时会出版专题特刊，其主题和版式由编辑团队决定。

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