Article2010

Explaining quantitative variation in the rate of Optional Infinitive errors across languages: A comparison of MOSAIC and the Variational Learning Model

Daniel T Freudenthal · Julián M. Pine · Fernand R. Gobet

68 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Child Language

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Language Development and Disorders EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Abstract

In this study, we use corpus analysis and computational modelling techniques to compare two recent accounts of the OI stage: Legate & Yang's (2007) Variational Learning Model and Freudenthal, Pine & Gobet's (2006) Model of Syntax Acquisition in Children. We first assess the extent to which each of these accounts can explain the level of OI errors across five different languages (English, Dutch, German, French and Spanish). We then differentiate between the two accounts by testing their predictions about the relation between children's OI errors and the distribution of infinitival verb forms in the input language. We conclude that, although both accounts fit the cross-linguistic patterning of OI errors reasonably well, only MOSAIC is able to explain why verbs that occur more frequently as infinitives than as finite verb forms in the input also occur more frequently as OI errors than as correct finite verb forms in the children's output.

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References

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Cited by

2018Understanding spoken language through TalkBank 2016Combining Language Corpora With Experimental and Computational Approaches for Language Acquisition Research 2015Simulating the cross-linguistic pattern of Optional Infinitive errors in children’s declaratives and Wh- questions 2020Learning vocabulary and grammar from cross-situational statistics

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