Understanding how input matters: Verb learning and the footprint of universal grammar. Lidz, J., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. R Cognition, 87(3):151-78, 2003.
abstract   bibtex   
Studies under the heading "syntactic bootstrapping" have demonstrated that syntax guides young children's interpretations during verb learning. We evaluate two hypotheses concerning the origins of syntactic bootstrapping effects. The "universalist" view, holding that syntactic bootstrapping falls out from universal properties of the syntax-semantics mapping, is shown to be superior to the "emergentist" view, which holds that argument structure patterns emerge from a process of categorization and generalization over the input. These theories diverge in their predictions about a language in which syntactic structure is not the most reliable cue to a certain meaning. In Kannada, causative morphology is a better predictor of causative meaning than transitivity is. Hence, the emergentist view predicts that Kannada-speaking children will associate causative morphology (in favor of transitive syntax) with causative meaning. The universalist theory, however, predicts the opposite pattern. Using an act-out task, we found that 3-year-old native speakers of Kannada associate argument number and not morphological form with causativity, supporting the universalist approach.
@Article{LidzGleitman2003,
  author   = {Jeffrey Lidz and Henry Gleitman and Lila R Gleitman},
  journal  = {Cognition},
  title    = {Understanding how input matters: {V}erb learning and the footprint of universal grammar.},
  year     = {2003},
  number   = {3},
  pages    = {151-78},
  volume   = {87},
  abstract = {Studies under the heading "syntactic bootstrapping" have demonstrated
	that syntax guides young children's interpretations during verb learning.
	We evaluate two hypotheses concerning the origins of syntactic bootstrapping
	effects. The "universalist" view, holding that syntactic bootstrapping
	falls out from universal properties of the syntax-semantics mapping,
	is shown to be superior to the "emergentist" view, which holds that
	argument structure patterns emerge from a process of categorization
	and generalization over the input. These theories diverge in their
	predictions about a language in which syntactic structure is not
	the most reliable cue to a certain meaning. In Kannada, causative
	morphology is a better predictor of causative meaning than transitivity
	is. Hence, the emergentist view predicts that Kannada-speaking children
	will associate causative morphology (in favor of transitive syntax)
	with causative meaning. The universalist theory, however, predicts
	the opposite pattern. Using an act-out task, we found that 3-year-old
	native speakers of Kannada associate argument number and not morphological
	form with causativity, supporting the universalist approach.},
  keywords = {Female, Human, Infant, Knowledge, Language Development, Learning, Linguistics, Male, Adult, Child Language, Child, Preschool, Comparative Study, Semantics, Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S., Verbal Learning, 14517356},
}

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