Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners
Grammatical regularities may correlate with semantics; e.g. grammatical gender is often partially predictable from the noun's semantics. We explore whether learners generalise over semantic cues, and whether the extent of exposure (1 versus 4 sessions) and number of exemplars for each semantic...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor and Francis
2021
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| _version_ | 1797106918749110272 |
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| author | Brown, H Smith, K Samara, A Wonnacott, E |
| author_facet | Brown, H Smith, K Samara, A Wonnacott, E |
| author_sort | Brown, H |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Grammatical regularities may correlate with semantics; e.g. grammatical gender is often partially predictable from the noun's semantics. We explore whether learners generalise over semantic cues, and whether the extent of exposure (1 versus 4 sessions) and number of exemplars for each semantic class (type-frequency) affect this. Six-year-olds and adults were exposed to semi-artificial languages where nouns co-occurred with novel particles, with particle usage fully or partially determined by the semantics of the nouns. Both adults and children generalised to novel nouns when semantic cues were fully consistent. Adults (but not children) also generalised when cues were partially consistent. Generalisation increased with exposure, however there was no evidence that increasing type-frequency (i.e. more nouns per semantic class) increased generalisation. Post-experiment interviews also suggested that successful generalisation depended on explicit awareness. These results suggest that semantic cues are particularly difficult for children to exploit during the early stages of language acquisition.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:07:51Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:7f0fd9f5-c5dd-45d6-ace2-aab28dbef7ee |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:07:51Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7f0fd9f5-c5dd-45d6-ace2-aab28dbef7ee2022-05-24T08:08:47ZSemantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learnersJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7f0fd9f5-c5dd-45d6-ace2-aab28dbef7eeEnglishSymplectic ElementsTaylor and Francis2021Brown, HSmith, KSamara, AWonnacott, EGrammatical regularities may correlate with semantics; e.g. grammatical gender is often partially predictable from the noun's semantics. We explore whether learners generalise over semantic cues, and whether the extent of exposure (1 versus 4 sessions) and number of exemplars for each semantic class (type-frequency) affect this. Six-year-olds and adults were exposed to semi-artificial languages where nouns co-occurred with novel particles, with particle usage fully or partially determined by the semantics of the nouns. Both adults and children generalised to novel nouns when semantic cues were fully consistent. Adults (but not children) also generalised when cues were partially consistent. Generalisation increased with exposure, however there was no evidence that increasing type-frequency (i.e. more nouns per semantic class) increased generalisation. Post-experiment interviews also suggested that successful generalisation depended on explicit awareness. These results suggest that semantic cues are particularly difficult for children to exploit during the early stages of language acquisition. |
| spellingShingle | Brown, H Smith, K Samara, A Wonnacott, E Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| title | Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| title_full | Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| title_fullStr | Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| title_full_unstemmed | Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| title_short | Semantic cues in language learning: an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| title_sort | semantic cues in language learning an artificial language study with adult and child learners |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brownh semanticcuesinlanguagelearninganartificiallanguagestudywithadultandchildlearners AT smithk semanticcuesinlanguagelearninganartificiallanguagestudywithadultandchildlearners AT samaraa semanticcuesinlanguagelearninganartificiallanguagestudywithadultandchildlearners AT wonnacotte semanticcuesinlanguagelearninganartificiallanguagestudywithadultandchildlearners |