The acquisition of plural marking in English and German revisited: Schemata versus rules. Köpcke, K. J Child Lang, 25(2):293-319, 1998. abstract bibtex This article contributes to a debate in the linguistic and psychological literature that centres around the representation of morphologically complex words in the grammar and in the lexicon. The issue is whether inflectional morphology is rule-based (i.e. symbolically represented), or whether the assumption of pattern association is more adequate to account for the facts. On the basis of the analysis of acquisitional data the article strongly argues for the latter alternative. In a classic experiment that helped shape the development of acquisition theory Berko (1958) reported substantial support for ITEM-AND-PROCESS rules in the acquisition of plural morphology in English. A large part of her results were zero responses (repetition of the stimulus). A reinterpretation of these zero responses in light of schema theory and the cue strength hypothesis shows a striking departure from randomness. Berko's subjects tended to repeat stimuli just to the extent that these already resembled a plural schema. A reinterpretation of data reported in Innes (1974) achieved compatible results. This data set is far more extensive than Berko's and is used in the present study to put the schema model to a more stringent test. A reinterpretation of a parallel experiment with German children, using the cue strength analysis of the more complex plural morphology of German yielded parallel results. Finally, natural acquisitional data obtained from seven German speaking children aged between 2;1 and 2;9 are analysed. Again, strong support is found for the schema model. It is suggested that a schema-learning mechanism may underlie the acquisition of morphology, even when the end product of the learning process involves item-and-process rules, as in the case of English plural formation. In a schema-learning model, the child builds schematic representations for possible singular and plural lexical items as whole gestalts, and attempts to map concrete forms onto these schemata in deciding whether the forms have singular or plural value.
@Article{Kopcke1998,
author = {KM K\"opcke},
journal = {J Child Lang},
title = {The acquisition of plural marking in {E}nglish and {G}erman revisited: {S}chemata versus rules.},
year = {1998},
number = {2},
pages = {293-319},
volume = {25},
abstract = {This article contributes to a debate in the linguistic and psychological
literature that centres around the representation of morphologically
complex words in the grammar and in the lexicon. The issue is whether
inflectional morphology is rule-based (i.e. symbolically represented),
or whether the assumption of pattern association is more adequate
to account for the facts. On the basis of the analysis of acquisitional
data the article strongly argues for the latter alternative. In a
classic experiment that helped shape the development of acquisition
theory Berko (1958) reported substantial support for ITEM-AND-PROCESS
rules in the acquisition of plural morphology in English. A large
part of her results were zero responses (repetition of the stimulus).
A reinterpretation of these zero responses in light of schema theory
and the cue strength hypothesis shows a striking departure from randomness.
Berko's subjects tended to repeat stimuli just to the extent that
these already resembled a plural schema. A reinterpretation of data
reported in Innes (1974) achieved compatible results. This data set
is far more extensive than Berko's and is used in the present study
to put the schema model to a more stringent test. A reinterpretation
of a parallel experiment with German children, using the cue strength
analysis of the more complex plural morphology of German yielded
parallel results. Finally, natural acquisitional data obtained from
seven German speaking children aged between 2;1 and 2;9 are analysed.
Again, strong support is found for the schema model. It is suggested
that a schema-learning mechanism may underlie the acquisition of
morphology, even when the end product of the learning process involves
item-and-process rules, as in the case of English plural formation.
In a schema-learning model, the child builds schematic representations
for possible singular and plural lexical items as whole gestalts,
and attempts to map concrete forms onto these schemata in deciding
whether the forms have singular or plural value.},
keywords = {Child, Child Language, Preschool, Comparative Study, Female, Germany, Human, Language Development, Learning, Male, Phonetics, 9770909},
}
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{"_id":"Ko8Md6QRNp6gsqCXQ","bibbaseid":"kpcke-theacquisitionofpluralmarkinginenglishandgermanrevisitedschemataversusrules-1998","author_short":["Köpcke, K."],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"article","type":"article","author":[{"firstnames":["KM"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Köpcke"],"suffixes":[]}],"journal":"J Child Lang","title":"The acquisition of plural marking in English and German revisited: Schemata versus rules.","year":"1998","number":"2","pages":"293-319","volume":"25","abstract":"This article contributes to a debate in the linguistic and psychological literature that centres around the representation of morphologically complex words in the grammar and in the lexicon. The issue is whether inflectional morphology is rule-based (i.e. symbolically represented), or whether the assumption of pattern association is more adequate to account for the facts. On the basis of the analysis of acquisitional data the article strongly argues for the latter alternative. In a classic experiment that helped shape the development of acquisition theory Berko (1958) reported substantial support for ITEM-AND-PROCESS rules in the acquisition of plural morphology in English. A large part of her results were zero responses (repetition of the stimulus). A reinterpretation of these zero responses in light of schema theory and the cue strength hypothesis shows a striking departure from randomness. Berko's subjects tended to repeat stimuli just to the extent that these already resembled a plural schema. A reinterpretation of data reported in Innes (1974) achieved compatible results. This data set is far more extensive than Berko's and is used in the present study to put the schema model to a more stringent test. A reinterpretation of a parallel experiment with German children, using the cue strength analysis of the more complex plural morphology of German yielded parallel results. Finally, natural acquisitional data obtained from seven German speaking children aged between 2;1 and 2;9 are analysed. Again, strong support is found for the schema model. It is suggested that a schema-learning mechanism may underlie the acquisition of morphology, even when the end product of the learning process involves item-and-process rules, as in the case of English plural formation. In a schema-learning model, the child builds schematic representations for possible singular and plural lexical items as whole gestalts, and attempts to map concrete forms onto these schemata in deciding whether the forms have singular or plural value.","keywords":"Child, Child Language, Preschool, Comparative Study, Female, Germany, Human, Language Development, Learning, Male, Phonetics, 9770909","bibtex":"@Article{Kopcke1998,\n author = {KM K\\\"opcke},\n journal = {J Child Lang},\n title = {The acquisition of plural marking in {E}nglish and {G}erman revisited: {S}chemata versus rules.},\n year = {1998},\n number = {2},\n pages = {293-319},\n volume = {25},\n abstract = {This article contributes to a debate in the linguistic and psychological\n\tliterature that centres around the representation of morphologically\n\tcomplex words in the grammar and in the lexicon. The issue is whether\n\tinflectional morphology is rule-based (i.e. symbolically represented),\n\tor whether the assumption of pattern association is more adequate\n\tto account for the facts. On the basis of the analysis of acquisitional\n\tdata the article strongly argues for the latter alternative. In a\n\tclassic experiment that helped shape the development of acquisition\n\ttheory Berko (1958) reported substantial support for ITEM-AND-PROCESS\n\trules in the acquisition of plural morphology in English. A large\n\tpart of her results were zero responses (repetition of the stimulus).\n\tA reinterpretation of these zero responses in light of schema theory\n\tand the cue strength hypothesis shows a striking departure from randomness.\n\tBerko's subjects tended to repeat stimuli just to the extent that\n\tthese already resembled a plural schema. A reinterpretation of data\n\treported in Innes (1974) achieved compatible results. This data set\n\tis far more extensive than Berko's and is used in the present study\n\tto put the schema model to a more stringent test. A reinterpretation\n\tof a parallel experiment with German children, using the cue strength\n\tanalysis of the more complex plural morphology of German yielded\n\tparallel results. Finally, natural acquisitional data obtained from\n\tseven German speaking children aged between 2;1 and 2;9 are analysed.\n\tAgain, strong support is found for the schema model. 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