First and Second Language Acquisition of Recursive Operations: Two Studies

Linguistic theory has increasingly revolved around the notion of recursion. Most recently, many have advocated a view wherein it forms the essence of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) purportedly contained in the human mind, while others have argued that it remains a separate and not necessarily related component of language processing. L1 Acquisition theory has suggested that appropriate recursive input is required to activate the LAD’s recursive faculties; nonetheless, L1 recursive structures may resist instruction and cause initial confusion among children. The effect that any of this may have on L2 has only begun to be studied. This dissertation attempts to fill this gap in knowledge by describing two experiments which concentrate on the interpretation of adjacent prepositional phrases (PPs). The first experiment exploits the similarity of PPs in Spanish and English by using identical prompts in both languages and with both L1 and L2 speakers, while the second experiment studies the growth of their recursivity in L1 acquisition in English. Both experiments also study the effect that unique pairs of prepositions have on this as well as the effect created by extending the chain of adjacent PPs beyond only two. The results provide a valuable insight into the interpretation of these structures. Recursive responses suggest an L2 path to acquisition which may result in L1 levels of performance. Yet Spanish and English each display their own behavior patterns, revealing dissimilarities that suggest Spanish possesses a more productive right-recursive rule than does English. Growth in L1 child English is also clearly observed in some scenarios but not in all. The important role individual prepositions clearly play is observed in both experiments, with unique pairs having unique levels of recursion. Increasing complexity of the NP based on number of PPs also entrenches recursion in interpretation. Nonetheless, certain participants resist recursion in multiple scenarios, a fact which may support an argument for targeted recursive input

Toward an integrated model of first and second language acquisition

No Abstract

Mechanisms of first and second language acquisition

Language acquisition is the transition between the language faculty, with which we are born as a part of our genetic endowment, to the mastery of one or more linguistic systems. There is a plethora of findings about this process; but these findings still do not form a coherent picture of the principles which underlie this process. There are at least six reasons for this situation. First, there is an enormous variability in the conditions under which this process occurs. Second, the learning capacity does not remain constant over time. Third, the process extends over many years and is therefore hard to study. Fourth, especially the investigation of the meaning side is problem-loaded. Fifth, many skills and types of knowledge must be learned in a more or less synchronised way. And sixth, our understanding of the functioning of linguistic systems is still very limited. Nevertheless, there are a few overarching results, three of which are discussed here: (1) There are salient differences between child and adult learners: While children normally end up with perfect mastery of the language to be learned, this is hardly ever the case for adults. On the hand, it could be shown for each linguistic property examined so far, that adults are in principle able to learn it up to perfection. So, adults can learn everything perfectly well, they just don’t. (2) Within childhood, age of onset plays no essential role for ultimate attainment. (3) Children care much more for formal correctness than adults - they are just better in mimicking existing systems. It is argued that age does not affect the „construction capacity”- the capacity to build up linguistic systems - but the „copying faculty”, i.e., the faculty to imitate an existing system

The role of Universal Grammar in first and second language acquisition.

openThe purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the role of Universal Grammar (UG) in first and second language acquisition. The main focus lies on three situations the child faces when acquiring a language: poverty of the stimulus, imitation and absence of explicit negative evidences. These circumstances are initially discussed in the first language acquisition process, in order to analyse later the differences with the second language acquisition. The dissimilarities regard directly the UG: while in the first language acquisition UG is the initial state, when acquiring the second language there also might be the first language involved

First and second language acquisition: Complexities, confusions, clarifications

The literature on second language acquisition makes many links to theories purporting to account for first language acquisition. This paper argues that those theories, and the links between them and accounts of second language acquisition, are often not fully understood, resulting in complexities and confusions about both first and second language acquisition. It is suggested that one name conspicuous by its absence from many such accounts is that of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is argued that Wittgenstein’s later philosophy provides a perspective which dispels confusions about, and gives us a clearer insight into, the issues, with implications for those teaching and learning first and second languages

Modelling first and second language acquisition and processing with temporal self-organizing maps

Starting from the evidence provided by researchers at ComPhys Lab of the Institute for Computational Linguistics, Italian National Research Council (Pisa, ILC-CNR), the main goal of my thesis was to extend the application of computational modelling of language acquisition in monolingual and bilingual contexts to Spanish, which has not yet been treated within the given research framework. For the first step, I briefly outlined some of the most prominent psycholinguistic approaches to the study of language acquisition. Secondly, three major models of morphological processing has been presented. For instance, three models of lexical representation and processing has been explained, following the classification proposed by Bybee (1995), i.e. dual-processing model, connectionist model, and network model. The difference between these three models lies in whether they make a distinction between regular and irregular verbs and their processing models, and whether or not the type/token frequency of verbal morphological patterns plays any role at all. The experimental part of this study was focussed on the first and second language acquisition of Spanish verbs, contrasted with parallel datasets in the Italian and German languages. In order to compile the dataset, I extracted the 50 most frequent verb paradigms from European Spanish Web Corpus (2011), available in Sketch Engine, for a total of 750 inflected forms (corresponding to the forms of the infinitive, present, and past participle, singular and plural simple present, singular and plural simple past). The frequency distribution was provided for each inflected form. For an analysis and evaluation of the emergent organization of paradigmatic relations, I annotated each form with morpho-syntactic information (i.e. stem and affix length, paradigmatic cell, formal (ir)regularity, paradigm). Specific difficulties arose during the segmentation of Spanish verbs, due to the peculiarities of some irregular patterns. The computational modelling and processing of Spanish verbs forms has been simulated with Temporal Self-Organizing Maps (TSOMs), based on Kohonen¿s Self-Organizing Maps (2001), augmented with a temporal layer. Basically, this computational model reproduces dynamics of lexical learning and processing by imitating the emergence of neural self-organization, through the incremental adaptation of topologically and temporally aligned synaptic connections. I concluded that an adaptive self-organization during learning is conducive to the emergence of relations between word forms, which are stored in the mental lexicon in a concurrent and competitive dynamic. In particular, in a bilingual perspective, monitoring the acquisitional trajectories of more than one lexica (in both L1+L2 and L1/L1 contexts) showed how recycled memory resources and weaker connections affect L2 acquisition and processing, with a smaller specialization for context-specific input chunks, depending on the exposure conditions.El principal objetivo de la tesis es ampliar la aplicación del modelado computacional de la adquisición del lenguaje en contextos monolingües y bilingües del español, que todavía no ha sido tratado dentro del marco de investigación dado, a partir de las pruebas aportadas por los investigadores del ComPhys Lab del Instituto de Lingüística Computacional, Consejo Nacional Italiano de Investigación (Pisa, ILC-CNR). En primer lugar, resumimos brevemente algunos de los enfoques psicolingüísticos más destacados para el estudio de la adquisición del lenguaje. En segundo lugar, presentamos los tres modelos principales de procesamiento morfológico. Por ejemplo, se han explicado tres modelos de representación y procesamiento léxico, siguiendo la clasificación propuesta por Bybee (1995), es decir, el modelo de procesamiento dual, el modelo conexionista y el modelo de red. La diferencia entre estos tres modelos radica en si hacen una distinción entre verbos regulares e irregulares y sus modelos de procesamiento, y si la frecuencia tipo/caso de los patrones morfológicos verbales representan alguna función. La parte experimental del estudio se centró en la adquisición de la primera y segunda lengua en los verbos en español, en contraste con el conjunto de datos paralelos en italiano y alemán. Para compilar los datos, extrajimos los 50 paradigmas verbales más frecuentes del European Spanish Web Corpus (2011), disponible en Sketch Engine, de un total de 750 formas flexionadas (correspondientes a las formas del infinitivo, presente y participio pasado, singular y plural del presente simple, singular y plural de pasado simple). Se proporcionó la distribución de la frecuencia para cada forma flexionada. Para un análisis y evaluación de la organización emergente de las relaciones paradigmáticas, anotamos cada forma con información morfo-sintáctica (es decir, longitud de raíz y afijo, elemento paradigmático, (ir) regularidad formal, paradigma). Surgieron dificultades específicas durante la segmentación de los verbos en español, debido a las particularidades de algunos patrones irregulares. El modelo computacional y el proceso de las formas verbales españolas ha sido simulado con Temporal Self-Organizing Maps (TSOMs), basado en Kohonen¿s Self-Organizing Maps (2001), mejorado con una capa temporal. Básicamente, este modelo computacional reproduce las dinámicas de aprendizaje y procesamiento léxico imitando la aparición del auto organización neural, a través de la adaptación incremental de conexiones sinápticas alineadas topológica y temporalmente. Podemos concluir que una auto-organización adaptativa durante el aprendizaje conduce a la aparición de las relaciones entre las formas de las palabras, que se almacenan en el léxico mental en una dinámica concurrente y competitiva. En particular, en una perspectiva bilingüe, el monitoreo de las trayectorias de adquisición de más de una unidad léxica (en ambos contextos L1+L2 y L1/L1) mostró cómo los recursos de memoria reciclados y las conexiones más débiles afectan la adquisición y procesamiento de L2, con una especialización menor para los fragmentos de entradas específicos del contexto, dependiendo de las condiciones de exposición.Belik, P. (2017). Modelación computacional del aprendizaje y procesamiento de primera y segunda lengua con los mapas temporales auto-organizados. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/86383TFG

Generation of Complex Verbal Morphology in First and Second Language Acquisition: Evidence from Russian

This study explores the structure of the mental lexicon and the processing of Russian verbal morphology by two groups of speakers, adult American learners of Russian and Russian children aged 4-6, and reports the results of two matching experiments conducted at the University of Maryland, USA and St. Petersburg State University, Russia. The theoretical framework for this study comes from research on the structure of the mental lexicon and modularity in morphological processing. So far, there are very few studies investigating the processing of complex verbal morphology, with most of the work done on Icelandic, Norwegian, Italian, and Russian. The current views are shaped predominantly by research on English regular and irregular past-tense inflection, which has been conducted within two competing approaches. This study investigates the processing of verbal morphology in Russian, a language with numerous verb classes differing in size and the number and complexity of conjugation rules. It assumes that instead of a sharp opposition of regular and irregular verb processing, a gradual parameter of regularity may be more appropriate for Russian. Therefore, the issue of symbolic rule application versus associative patterning can take on a new meaning for Russian, possibly, with the distinction between default and non-default processing replacing the regular-irregular distinction