TY - JOUR
T1 - Syntactic and Lexical Inference in the Acquisition of Novel Superlatives
AU - Wellwood, Alexis
AU - Gagliardi, Annie
AU - Lidz, Jeffrey
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2016/7/2
Y1 - 2016/7/2
N2 - Acquiring the correct meanings of words expressing quantities (seven, most) and qualities (red, spotty) present a challenge to learners. Understanding how children succeed at this requires understanding, not only of what kinds of data are available to them, but also the biases and expectations they bring to the learning task. The results of our word-learning task with 4-year-olds indicate that a “syntactic bootstrapping” hypothesis correctly predicts a bias toward quantity-based interpretations when a novel word appears in the syntactic position of a determiner but also leaves open the explanation of a bias towards quality-based interpretations when the same word is presented in the syntactic position of an adjective. We develop four computational models that differentially encode how lexical, conceptual, and perceptual factors could generate the latter bias. Simulation results suggest it results from a combination of lexical bias and perceptual encoding.
AB - Acquiring the correct meanings of words expressing quantities (seven, most) and qualities (red, spotty) present a challenge to learners. Understanding how children succeed at this requires understanding, not only of what kinds of data are available to them, but also the biases and expectations they bring to the learning task. The results of our word-learning task with 4-year-olds indicate that a “syntactic bootstrapping” hypothesis correctly predicts a bias toward quantity-based interpretations when a novel word appears in the syntactic position of a determiner but also leaves open the explanation of a bias towards quality-based interpretations when the same word is presented in the syntactic position of an adjective. We develop four computational models that differentially encode how lexical, conceptual, and perceptual factors could generate the latter bias. Simulation results suggest it results from a combination of lexical bias and perceptual encoding.
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U2 - 10.1080/15475441.2015.1052878
DO - 10.1080/15475441.2015.1052878
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84953341418
SN - 1547-5441
VL - 12
SP - 262
EP - 279
JO - Language Learning and Development
JF - Language Learning and Development
IS - 3
ER -