Experimental methods in language acquisition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22481/el.v7i2.1090Keywords:
Acquisition of Syntax. Experiments. Elicited Production Task. Grammaticality Judgment Task. Truth-Value Judgment Task.Abstract
This article discusses some experimental methods widely employed in language acquisition studies: the elicited production task, the grammaticality judgment task and the truth-value judgment task. It provides an overview of how these methods work and discusses some problems that may arise when they are used without giving special attention to pragmatic factors. Studies that detected these problems and modified the methods fixing these flaws are discussed.
KEYWORDS: Acquisition of Syntax. Experiments. Elicited Production Task. Grammaticality Judgment Task. Truth-Value Judgment Task.
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References
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BORER, H.; WEXLER, K. The maturation of syntax. In: ROEPER, T.; WILLIAMS, E. (eds.) Parameter setting. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987. p. 123-172.
BOSTER, C. Children's failure to obey principle B: syntactic problem or lexical error? In: ABE, J.; FERRO, L.; LAPORTE-GRIMES, L.; TAKAHASHI, D.; YAMASHINA, M (eds.) UConn Working Papers in Linguistics 4. Ms., Storrs: University of Connecticut. 1994.
BROWN, R. A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1973.
CHIEN, Y. C.; WEXLER, K. Children’s knowledge of locality conditions in binding as evidence for the modularity of syntax and pragmatics. Language acquisition, v. 1, p. 225-295, 1990.
CHOMSKy, N. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris, 1981.
CONROY, A.; TAKAHASHI, E.; LIDZ, J.; PHILLIPS, C. Equal treatment for all antecedents: how children succeed with principle B. Disponível em: http://www.ling.umd.edu/labs/acquisition/papers/ ctlp2006.pdf, 2006.
CORRêA, L. On the comprehension of relative clauses: a developmental study with reference to Portuguese. Tese [Doutorado]. University of London, 1986.
________ . Dificuldades e potencialidades do uso do método experimental no estudo da aquisição da linguagem. In: CASTRO, M. F. (Org.). O método e o dado no estudo da linguagem. Campinas: Ed. da Unicamp, 1996. p. 31-44.
CRAIN, S. Language acquisition in the absence of experience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, v. 14, p. 597-612, 1991.
CRAIN, S.; FODOR, J. Competence and performance. In: DROMI, E. (ed.). Language and Cognition: a developmental perspective, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993.
CRAIN, S.; MCKEE, C. The acquisition of structural restrictions on anaphora. Proceedings of nELS, v.16, p. 94-110, 1985.
CRAIN, S.; NAKAYAMA, M. Structure dependence in grammar formation. Language, v. 63, p. 522-543, 1987.
CRAIN, S.; THORNTON, R. Investigations in Universal Grammar. Cambridge: :The MIT Press, 1999.
CRAIN, S.; THORNTON, R.; BOSTER, C.; CONWAY, L.; LILLO-MARTIN, D.; WOODAMS, E. Quantification without qualification. Language Acquisition, v. 5, p. 83-153, 1996.
CRAIN, S.; THORNTON, R.; MURASUGI, K. Capturing the evasive passive. In: The 12th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, United States., 1987.
DEMUTH, K. Collecting spontaneous production data. In: McDANIEL; D., McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.) Methods for assessing children’s syntax, 1996. p. 3-22.
ELBOURNE, P. On the Acquisition of Principle B. Linguistic Inquiry, v. 36, p. 333-365, 2005.
FOX, D.; GRODZINSKY, Y.; CRAIN, S. An experimental study of children’s passive. MIT working papers in linguistics, v. 26, p. 249- 264, 1995.
GOODLUCK, H. Linguistic principles in children’s grammar of complement subject interpretation. Tese [Doutorado], University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978.
GORDON, P. The truth-value judgment task. In: McDANIEL, D.; McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.) Methods for assessing children’s syntax, 1996. p. 211-232.
GRODZINSKY, Y.; REINHART, T. The Innateness of Binding and Coreference. Linguistic Inquiry, v. 24, p. 69-101, 1993.
GROLLA, E. Pronouns as Elsewhere Elements: Implications for Language Acquisition. Tese [Doutorado], University of Connecticut. Distribuída por MITWPL, Cambridge, MA, 2005.
_______ . The Saliency Factor in Studies on the Acquisition of Principle B. nELS, v. 1, n. 38, p. 325-238, 2009.
GUASTI M. T.; THORNTON, R.; WEXLER, K. Negation in children's questions: the case of English. In: MacLAUGHLIN, D.; McEWEN, S. BUCLD, Somerville, v. 19, n.1, p. 228-239, 1995.
HAMBURGER, H.; CRAIN, S. Relative acquisition. In: KUCZAJ, S. (ed.), Language development: syntax and semantics. Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1982. p. 245-274.
HIRAMATSU, K.; LILLO-MARTIN, D. Children Who Judge What
They Produce Ungrammatical. BUCLD, v. 22, p. 337-347, 1998.
HIRSCH, C.; WEXLER, K. By the way, children don’t know by. BUCLD, v.30, p. 249-261, 2006.
HORGAN, D. The development of the full passive. Journal of Child Language, v. 5, p. 65-80, 1978.
LABELLE, M. Predication, wh-movement and the development of relative clauses. Language Acquisition, v. 1, p. 95-119, 1990.
LEGUM, S. Strategies in the acquisition of relative clauses. Southwest Regional Laboratory Technical Note, TN, v, 2, p. 75-10, 1975.
MacWHINNEY, B. The CHILDES handbook: tools for analyzing talk. Hilllsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991.
MacWHINNEY, B.; SNOW, C. The Child Language Data Exchange System. Journal of Child Language, v. 12, p. 271-296, 1985.
MARATSOS, M.; FOX, D.; BECKER, J.; CHALKLEY, M. Semantic restrictions on children’s passives. Cognition, v. 19, p. 167-191, 1985.
McDANIEL D.; McKEE, C; CAIRNS, H (eds.). Methods for assessing children’s syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996.
McKEE, C.; EMILIANI, M. Il clitico: C’e ma non si vede. natural language & Linguistic theory, v. 10, p. 415-438, 1992.
NAME, M. C.; CORRêA, L. Explorando a escuta, o olhar e o processamento sintático: metodologia experimental para o estudo da aquisição da língua materna em fase inicial. In: CORRêA, L. (Org.) Aquisição da linguagem e problemas de desenvolvimento lingüístico. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. da PUC, 2006. p. 79-100.
O’BRIEN, K.; GROLLA, E.; LILLO-MARTIN, D. Long Passives are
Understood by Young Children. BUCLD. Somerville, v. 30. p. 441- 451. 2006.
PÉREZ-LEROUX, A. Resumptives in the acquisition of relative clauses. Language acquisition, v. 4, p. 105-139, 1995.
PHILIP, W. Event Quantification in the Acquisition of Universal Quantification, Tese [Doutorado], University of Massachusetts, 1995.
PINKER, S. Learnability and cognition: the acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1989.
SHELDON, A. The role of parallel function in the acquisition of relative clauses in English. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, v. 13, p 272-281, 1974.
STROMSWOLD, K. Analyzing children’s spontaneous speech. In: McDANIEL, D.; McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.), Methods for assessing children’s syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press, p. 23-54, 1996.
TAVAKOLIAN, S. The conjoined-clause analysis of relative clauses. In: TAVAKOLIAN, S. (ed.) Language acquisition and linguistic theory, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1978. p. 167–187
THORNTON, R. Adventures in long-distance moving: the acquisition of complex wh-questions, Tese [Doutorado], University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1990.
_______ . Elicited production. In: McDANIEL, D.; McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.) Methods for assessing children’s syntax, 1996, p. 77-102.
THORNTON, R.; WEXLER, K. Principle B, VP-ellipsis, and interpretation in child grammar. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999.
WELLS, G. Variation in child language. In: FLECHTER, P.; GARMAN, M. (eds.) Language acquisition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. p. 109-139.
WEXLER, K. Theory of phrasal development: perfection in child grammar. In: MIT working papers in linguistics, v. 48, p. 159-205, 2004.
BORER, H.; WEXLER, K. The maturation of syntax. In: ROEPER, T.; WILLIAMS, E. (eds.) Parameter setting. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987. p. 123-172.
BOSTER, C. Children's failure to obey principle B: syntactic problem or lexical error? In: ABE, J.; FERRO, L.; LAPORTE-GRIMES, L.; TAKAHASHI, D.; YAMASHINA, M (eds.) UConn Working Papers in Linguistics 4. Ms., Storrs: University of Connecticut. 1994.
BROWN, R. A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1973.
CHIEN, Y. C.; WEXLER, K. Children’s knowledge of locality conditions in binding as evidence for the modularity of syntax and pragmatics. Language acquisition, v. 1, p. 225-295, 1990.
CHOMSKy, N. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris, 1981.
CONROY, A.; TAKAHASHI, E.; LIDZ, J.; PHILLIPS, C. Equal treatment for all antecedents: how children succeed with principle B. Disponível em: http://www.ling.umd.edu/labs/acquisition/papers/ ctlp2006.pdf, 2006.
CORRêA, L. On the comprehension of relative clauses: a developmental study with reference to Portuguese. Tese [Doutorado]. University of London, 1986.
________ . Dificuldades e potencialidades do uso do método experimental no estudo da aquisição da linguagem. In: CASTRO, M. F. (Org.). O método e o dado no estudo da linguagem. Campinas: Ed. da Unicamp, 1996. p. 31-44.
CRAIN, S. Language acquisition in the absence of experience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, v. 14, p. 597-612, 1991.
CRAIN, S.; FODOR, J. Competence and performance. In: DROMI, E. (ed.). Language and Cognition: a developmental perspective, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993.
CRAIN, S.; MCKEE, C. The acquisition of structural restrictions on anaphora. Proceedings of nELS, v.16, p. 94-110, 1985.
CRAIN, S.; NAKAYAMA, M. Structure dependence in grammar formation. Language, v. 63, p. 522-543, 1987.
CRAIN, S.; THORNTON, R. Investigations in Universal Grammar. Cambridge: :The MIT Press, 1999.
CRAIN, S.; THORNTON, R.; BOSTER, C.; CONWAY, L.; LILLO-MARTIN, D.; WOODAMS, E. Quantification without qualification. Language Acquisition, v. 5, p. 83-153, 1996.
CRAIN, S.; THORNTON, R.; MURASUGI, K. Capturing the evasive passive. In: The 12th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, United States., 1987.
DEMUTH, K. Collecting spontaneous production data. In: McDANIEL; D., McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.) Methods for assessing children’s syntax, 1996. p. 3-22.
ELBOURNE, P. On the Acquisition of Principle B. Linguistic Inquiry, v. 36, p. 333-365, 2005.
FOX, D.; GRODZINSKY, Y.; CRAIN, S. An experimental study of children’s passive. MIT working papers in linguistics, v. 26, p. 249- 264, 1995.
GOODLUCK, H. Linguistic principles in children’s grammar of complement subject interpretation. Tese [Doutorado], University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978.
GORDON, P. The truth-value judgment task. In: McDANIEL, D.; McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.) Methods for assessing children’s syntax, 1996. p. 211-232.
GRODZINSKY, Y.; REINHART, T. The Innateness of Binding and Coreference. Linguistic Inquiry, v. 24, p. 69-101, 1993.
GROLLA, E. Pronouns as Elsewhere Elements: Implications for Language Acquisition. Tese [Doutorado], University of Connecticut. Distribuída por MITWPL, Cambridge, MA, 2005.
_______ . The Saliency Factor in Studies on the Acquisition of Principle B. nELS, v. 1, n. 38, p. 325-238, 2009.
GUASTI M. T.; THORNTON, R.; WEXLER, K. Negation in children's questions: the case of English. In: MacLAUGHLIN, D.; McEWEN, S. BUCLD, Somerville, v. 19, n.1, p. 228-239, 1995.
HAMBURGER, H.; CRAIN, S. Relative acquisition. In: KUCZAJ, S. (ed.), Language development: syntax and semantics. Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1982. p. 245-274.
HIRAMATSU, K.; LILLO-MARTIN, D. Children Who Judge What
They Produce Ungrammatical. BUCLD, v. 22, p. 337-347, 1998.
HIRSCH, C.; WEXLER, K. By the way, children don’t know by. BUCLD, v.30, p. 249-261, 2006.
HORGAN, D. The development of the full passive. Journal of Child Language, v. 5, p. 65-80, 1978.
LABELLE, M. Predication, wh-movement and the development of relative clauses. Language Acquisition, v. 1, p. 95-119, 1990.
LEGUM, S. Strategies in the acquisition of relative clauses. Southwest Regional Laboratory Technical Note, TN, v, 2, p. 75-10, 1975.
MacWHINNEY, B. The CHILDES handbook: tools for analyzing talk. Hilllsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991.
MacWHINNEY, B.; SNOW, C. The Child Language Data Exchange System. Journal of Child Language, v. 12, p. 271-296, 1985.
MARATSOS, M.; FOX, D.; BECKER, J.; CHALKLEY, M. Semantic restrictions on children’s passives. Cognition, v. 19, p. 167-191, 1985.
McDANIEL D.; McKEE, C; CAIRNS, H (eds.). Methods for assessing children’s syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996.
McKEE, C.; EMILIANI, M. Il clitico: C’e ma non si vede. natural language & Linguistic theory, v. 10, p. 415-438, 1992.
NAME, M. C.; CORRêA, L. Explorando a escuta, o olhar e o processamento sintático: metodologia experimental para o estudo da aquisição da língua materna em fase inicial. In: CORRêA, L. (Org.) Aquisição da linguagem e problemas de desenvolvimento lingüístico. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. da PUC, 2006. p. 79-100.
O’BRIEN, K.; GROLLA, E.; LILLO-MARTIN, D. Long Passives are
Understood by Young Children. BUCLD. Somerville, v. 30. p. 441- 451. 2006.
PÉREZ-LEROUX, A. Resumptives in the acquisition of relative clauses. Language acquisition, v. 4, p. 105-139, 1995.
PHILIP, W. Event Quantification in the Acquisition of Universal Quantification, Tese [Doutorado], University of Massachusetts, 1995.
PINKER, S. Learnability and cognition: the acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1989.
SHELDON, A. The role of parallel function in the acquisition of relative clauses in English. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, v. 13, p 272-281, 1974.
STROMSWOLD, K. Analyzing children’s spontaneous speech. In: McDANIEL, D.; McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.), Methods for assessing children’s syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press, p. 23-54, 1996.
TAVAKOLIAN, S. The conjoined-clause analysis of relative clauses. In: TAVAKOLIAN, S. (ed.) Language acquisition and linguistic theory, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1978. p. 167–187
THORNTON, R. Adventures in long-distance moving: the acquisition of complex wh-questions, Tese [Doutorado], University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1990.
_______ . Elicited production. In: McDANIEL, D.; McKEE, C.; CAIRNS, H. (eds.) Methods for assessing children’s syntax, 1996, p. 77-102.
THORNTON, R.; WEXLER, K. Principle B, VP-ellipsis, and interpretation in child grammar. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999.
WELLS, G. Variation in child language. In: FLECHTER, P.; GARMAN, M. (eds.) Language acquisition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. p. 109-139.
WEXLER, K. Theory of phrasal development: perfection in child grammar. In: MIT working papers in linguistics, v. 48, p. 159-205, 2004.
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2009-12-01
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GROLLA, E. Experimental methods in language acquisition. Language Studies, [S. l.], v. 7, n. 2, p. 9-42, 2009. DOI: 10.22481/el.v7i2.1090. Disponível em: https://periodicos2.uesb.br/index.php/estudosdalinguagem/article/view/1090. Acesso em: 21 nov. 2024.
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