Que reste-t-il de la distinction compétence-performance dans les théories fondées sur l'usage ?

The usage-based approach to language brings together approaches that share the same working hypothesis i.e. that the genesis of language and the way language works both emerge from its usage. Although proponents of this approach criticise or reject the competence-performance distinction, they nonetheless continue to use it. A historical overview of the main reformulations of the Chomskian distinction in three scientific fields (cognitive psycholinguistics, the ethnography of communication and variationist sociolinguistics) establishes that the usage-based approach implements an integrative conception of competence. This conception includes, and sometimes generalises, elements drawn from these reformulations (cognitive processes, socio-cultural aspects to interaction, variation and the probabilistic aspect). As for performance, it seems to be understood as a series of data whereas the notion of usage event describes an interactional episode with its own dynamics. What remains of Chomsky's initial formulation is the idea of a system, with linguistic knowledge being understood not only as a set of processes and decisions called upon during the brief moment of the interaction, but also as a permanent structure of knowledge about language. Due to this desire for integration, the usage-based approach encounters the same difficulty that hampered some of its predecessors: how to model the link between linguistic and social knowledge (indexicality). However, recent elements drawn from cognitive neuroscience and exemplar theory can offer possible ways of meeting this interdisciplinary challenge.L'approche du langage fondée sur l'usage fédère des courants partageant l'hypothèse de travail selon laquelle le fonctionnement et la genèse du langage émergent de son usage. Bien qu'ils critiquent ou rejettent la distinction compétence-performance, les tenants de ce courant continuent à l'utiliser. L'examen des principales reformulations de la distinction chomskyenne dans trois champs scientifiques (psycholinguistique cognitive, ethnographie de la communication, sociolinguistique variationniste) fait apparaître que l'approche fondée sur l'usage met en œuvre une conception intégratrice de la compétence qui inclut et parfois généralise des éléments issus de ces reformulations : processus cognitifs, aspects socioculturel de l'interaction, variation et dimension probabiliste. La performance quant à elle renvoie essentiellement aux données recueillies alors que la notion d'événement d'usage décrit un épisode interactionnel doté d'une dynamique propre. De la formulation chomskyenne initiale, il subsiste la notion de système, la connaissance linguistique n'étant pas seulement perçue comme un ensemble de processus et de décisions mobilisés dans le temps bref de l'interaction, mais aussi comme une structure permanente de connaissances sur la langue. Du fait de cette volonté intégrative, l'approche fondée sur l'usage rencontre, comme ses prédécesseurs, des difficultés pour conceptualiser le lien entre connaissances linguistiques et connaissances sociales (indexicalité). Des éléments récents issus des neurosciences cognitives et de la théorie des exemplaires offrent des pistes pour relever ce défi interdisciplinaire

Acquisition of French Liaison and Related Child Errors

Although French liaison is a major topic in the fields of adult French phonology and sociolinguistics, its acquisition remains a terra incognita. Moreover, very frequent liaison consonant substitutions ("les- n-ours" instead of the adult form "les ours" with a /z/ liaison) or insertions ("papa-n-ours" instead of "papa ours") are well-known stereotypes of the French "babytalk", but their relationship with the acquisition of liaison has never been considered. Three kinds of data addressing these issues are presented. First, 300 such errors in the speech of a girl (from 2;0 to 3;6) during daily interactions will be analyzed. They suggest that /n/ is the most intrusive liaison consonant (compared with /z/ and /t/). Second, an experimentation has been carried out with 4-year old children (N=24) with the purpose of eliciting errors in words with obligatory liaisons. The results provide confirmation that /n/ is the most intrusive liaison consonant and suggest that some children are prone to use the liaison consonant they have just heard : they say more ofen "un-z-ours" (with a /z/ liaison instead of the adult /n/) after they have heard "des ours" with an adult-like /z/ liaison. Third, an experiment with three age groups [age means: 3;5 (N=15), 4;6 (N=24), 5;8 (N=15)] investigates whether implicit knowledge about probabilistic phonotactic constraints is used in segmenting ambiguous "determiner-noun" sequences. For example, subjects are hearing "determiner + non-word" sequences including a /n/ or a /z/ consonant, whose lexical and syllabic status is ambiguous : in such a sequence as "un (n)apil", one cannot hear whether /n/ is the coda liaison consonant of "un" (un apil), or whether it is the consonantal onset of the non word (un napil). Subjects are then asked to replace the singular determiner "un" with the plural determiner "des" (and vice versa when "des" + non-word sequences are presented). Responses like [dezapil] suggest that they consider /n/ to be a liaison consonant. Responses like [denapil] suggest that they view /n/ as the initial onset of the non-word "napil". Results show that responses of the youngest group do not fit phonotactic constraints (in French, /n/ is more frequent than /z/ as a word initial consonant and /z/ more frequent than /n/ as a liaison consonant) . The discussion addresses two issues : (1) What is the lexical status of liaison in the phonological representation of young children ? (2) If knowlegdge about phonotactic constraints is not available before the age of 4, how could we explain that /n/ is the most intrusive liaison consonant as early as the age of 2

Language choice adjustments in child production during dyadic and multiparty interactions: A quantitative approach to multilingual interactions

International audienceThis paper aims to document two adjustment types motivating code choices in early production in the multilingual context of Veneto (Italy), where the regional dialects and Italian share the same geolinguistic space. Languages with which a child comes into contact in his/her environment could provide a vantage point for the study of early contextual language adjustments. We compared the early production of a child - Francesco (17-30 months) - with his input, through a quantitative lexical approach to the material. Data were collected in an ecological family setting. Dyadic interactions (15 hours) were taped in Francesco's home and multiparty interactions (20 hours) were recorded in his grandparents' home. In the first setting, statistically-driven acquisition could justify the adjustments in Francesco's production to the language choices in his home environment. In the second setting, where social interaction is different, pragmatically motivated adjustments are more likely to ground Francesco's choices. Results from the analyses suggest that a) child-directed speech promotes steady acquisition of the language which is selected the most frequently in the input and that b) pragmatically explicit interactional contexts could favour the production of lesser used languages

Liaison acquisition, word segmentation and construction in French: A usage based account

International audienceIn the linguistic field, liaison in French is interpreted as an indicator of interactions between the various levels of language organization. The current study examines the same issue while adopting a developmental perspective. Five experiments involving children aged 2-6 years provide evidence for a developmental scenario which interrelates a number of different issues: the acquisition of phonological alternations, the segmentation of new words, the long-term stabilization of the word form in the lexicon, and the formation of item-based constructions. According to this scenario, children favour the presence of initial CV syllables when segmenting stored chunks of speech of the type word1-liaison-word2 (les arbres 'the trees' is segmented as /le/ + /zarbr/). They cope with the variation of the liaison in the input by memorizing multiple exemplars of the same word2 (/zarbr/, /narbr/). They learn the correct relations between the word1s and the word2 exemplars through exposure to the well-formed sequence (un + /narbr/, deux + /zarbr/). They generalize the relation between a word1 and a class of word2 exemplars beginning with a specific liaison consonant by integrating this information into an item-based schema (e.g. un + /nX/, deux + /zX/). This model is based on the idea that the segmentation of new words and the development of syntactic schemas are two aspects of the same process

Gramatykalizacja francuskich i bułgarskich konstrukcji kauzatywnych. Niektóre aspekty diachroniczne i rozwojowe

The present article deals with the processes of grammaticalization from a diachronic and developmental point of view. To compare grammatical changes in history and acquisition, we fo­cus on the French and Bulgarian causative constructions (e.g. Fr. faire travailler qn vs. Blg. karam njakogo da raboti – ‘to make someone work’). A total of 113 French speakers (71 children and 42 adults) and 96 Bulgarian speakers (56 children and 40 adults) took part in this cross-linguistic study. Children were aged 3 to 6 years at the time of the study. Results show that historically, the French causative construction evolves from analytic devices to synthetic forms. As a compact structure, the faire + Vinf complex predicate requires argument rearrangement and clitic raising. These specifici­ties explain why its acquisition is difficult and occurs at a late stage in French-speaking children. The Bulgarian causative construction evolves in the opposite direction, from synthetic devices to less grammaticalized structures. As an analytic form including two predicates followed by their own arguments, the karam NP da + Vpres periphrastic causative seems easier to acquire and its full command by children is achieved earlier. Finally, we suggest that there are some similarities between language history and language acquisition with regard to the stages of competition between two causative mechanisms and the stabilization of the new construction.Niniejszy artykuł zajmuje się procesami gramatykalizacji z diachronicznego i rozwojowego punktu widzenia. Aby porównać zmiany gramatyczne w historii i nabywaniu języka, koncentru­jemy się na francuskich i bułgarskich strukturach kauzatywnych (np. fr. faire travailler qn vs błg. karam njakogo da raboti – ‘aby ktoś pracował’). W tym międzyjęzykowym badaniu wzięło udział 113 mówiących po francusku (71 dzieci i 42 dorosłych) i 96 mówiących po bułgarsku (56 dzieci i 40 dorosłych). Dzieci były w wieku od 3 do 6 lat w momencie badania. Wyniki badań pokazują, że historycznie francuskie konstrukcje przyczynowe ewoluują od struktur analitycznych do syn­tetycznych form. Złożony predykat fr. faire + Vinf wymaga przestawienia argumentów i powstania klityk. To wyjaśnia, dlaczego jego przyswojenie jest trudne i występuje na późnym etapie u dzieci francuskojęzycznych. Bułgarska konstrukcja kauzatywna ewoluuje w przeciwnym kierunku, od form syntetycznych do struktur mniej gramatycznych. Jako forma analityczna zawierająca dwa predykaty, którym towarzyszą ich własne argumenty, peryfrastyczna konstrukcja kauzatywna błg. karam NP da + Vpres wydaje się łatwiejsza do nauczenia, a jej pełne opanowanie przez dzieci osiągane jest wcześniej. Na koniec sugerujemy, że istnieją pewne podobieństwa między historią języka a nabywaniem języka w związku z okresem konkurowania między dwoma mechanizmami kauzatywnymi i stabilizacją nowej konstrukcji

pour un modèle de l'acquisition des liaisons basé sur l'usage : trois études de cas

International audienceDes études récentes, essentiellement fondées sur des expérimentations, ont précisé les relations entre l'usage enfantin des liaisons, les erreurs commises par les enfants et la segmentation des mots nouveaux. Alors que les auteurs s'accordent sur les faits, ils divergent sur les facteurs explicatifs susceptibles de rendre compte des étapes développementales. Chevrot, Dugua et Fayol (2005) défendent une approche base ́e sur l'usage alors que Wauquier-Gravelines (2005) et Wauquier-Gravelines et Braud (2005) soutiennent une conception dans laquelle le développement est guidé par les principes universels de la grammaire. Les données issues de trois études de cas confirment et clarifient les résultats expérimentaux. Deux types d'effets de fréquence soutiennent l'approche basée sur l'usage

Catplayinginthesnow: Impact of Prior Segmentation on a Model of Visually Grounded Speech

We investigate the effect of introducing phone, syllable, or word boundaries on the performance of a Model of Visually Grounded Speech and compare the results with a model that does not use any boundary information and with a model that uses random boundaries. We introduce a simple way to introduce such information in an RNN-based model and investigate which type of boundary enables a better mapping between an image and its spoken description. We also explore where, that is, at which level of the network's architecture such information should be introduced. We show that using a segmentation that results in syllable-like or word-like segments and that respects word boundaries are the most efficient. Also, we show that a linguistically informed subsampling is more efficient than a random subsampling. Finally, we show that using a hierarchical segmentation, by first using a phone segmentation and recomposing words from the phone units yields better results than either using a phone or word segmentation in isolation

Usage-based account of the acquisition of liaison: evidence from sensitivity to plural / singular orientation of nouns

International audienceThis study investigates whether the production and the recognition of liaison sequences in children depend on the singular/plural orientation of nouns. Certain nouns occur more frequently in the plural (e.g., arbre "tree") whereas others are found more often in the singular (e.g., arc-en-ciel "rainbow"). In the input, children more frequently encounter these plural-oriented nouns after determiners which indicate plurality (e.g., les, des, "the", deux, "two", etc.) and which are often associated with a /z/ liaison [døzarbr],"two trees". In experiment 1, 122 children (aged from 3;2 to 6;3) were asked to produce nominal phrases with either /z/ liaisons (i.e., in plural contexts like deux ours [døzurs],"two bears") or with /n/ liaisons (i.e., in singular contexts like un ours [oenurs],"one bear"). We found correlations between the plural-orientation of the nouns and (1) the probability that they will be preceded by an incorrect /z/ liaison in singular contexts (2) the probability that they will be preceded by a correct /z/ liaison in the plural context. This result was however restricted to the younger children. In experiment 2, 20 children (aged from 5;5 to 6;3) were asked to monitor target words in auditorily presented sentences. The results showed shorter responses times for singular-oriented nouns when preceded by singular determiners than when preceded by plural determiners. Conversely, plural-oriented nouns were responded to faster when preceded by a plural determiner than by a singular determiner. Results are discussed within the framework of a two-stage model of liaison acquisition recently proposed by Chevrot, Chabanal and Dugua (2007) and Chevrot, Dugua and Fayol (2009)

Language evaluation and use during early childhood: Adhesion to social norms or integration of environmental regularities?

International audienceWhether social uses of language, in concert with their acquisition, are driven by the awareness of the social value assigned to linguistic variants remains unanswered. The present study examines how 185 French native speakers, aged from 2 to 6 years from different social backgrounds, produce and evaluate a well-known French phonological alternation, the liaison: obligatory liaisons, which are categorical and do not vary sociolinguistically for adults, and variable liaisons, which are a sociolinguistic variable and are more frequently produced by higher-class adults. Different developmental and social patterns were found for obligatory and variable liaisons. Children's productions of obligatory liaisons were related to their judgments when 3-4 years old, regardless of the children's social backgrounds. However, a developmental gap was observed between higher- and lower-class children that appeared earlier in production than in evaluation. For variable liaisons, children's productions were related to their judgments, irrespective of their social backgrounds, at 4-5 years. Social differences appeared in both children's productions and judgments a year later. Although the ability to evaluate different linguistic forms emerges at an early developmental stage, the awareness of the social value of the variants does not seem to precede the ability to select the standard varieties in formal situations