Does simpler linguistic structure guarantee faster learning? Many theories predict so. Are more frequent elements easier to learn? That sounds like a reasonable hypothesis. But when we have a low-frequency but simple structure and a high-frequency but complex one, what should we expect? In this project, I investigate factors that influence children’s language acquisition and how they interact with one another.
The first part of the project is an experimental study. I ran an experiment with 14 adults and 27 children to test their comprehension and production of English in-situ information-seeking wh-question (the low-frequency but simple structure) and fronted information-seeking wh-question (the high-frequency but complex). I also conduct a cross-linguistic study to compare the results I have with studies conducted in French. In general, the notable findings include:
- Children can use prosody to differentiate between the two types of wh-questions
- Children have both constructions available to them in their grammar space, but they prefer to use the higher-frequency one, despite its complexity.
- Besides simplicity and frequency, consistency is also an important factor.
The second part of the project is a computational simulation study. I build a non-parametric Bayesian model that learns about different types of wh-questions. This study is still on-going.
Related publications:
Nguyen, A., & Legendre, G. (2020). Covert movement in English probing wh-questions.. In Proceedings of Linguistic Society of America 2020 Annual Meeting. 5(1). 180-186.
Nguyen, A., & Legendre, G. (2020). Testing syntactic simplicity: wh-in-situ vs. fronted wh-questions in L1 acquisition. Talk at Many Paths to Language, Max Planck Institute Conference, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Acceptance rate: 23.5%
Nguyen, A., Howe, W., & Legendre, G. (2020). Prosody as the main cue to differentiate wh-in-situ questions in acquisition. Talk at the 18th Old World Conference on Phonology, Eivissa, Spain.
Nguyen, A., & Legendre, G. (2020). The acquisition of English wh-in-situ. Talk at the Linguistic Society of America 2021 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. Acceptance rate: 35.2%.
Nguyen, A., Howe, W., & Legendre, G. (2020). English-speaking children’s acquisition of wh-in-situ. Poster at Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America 6. Reykjavík, Iceland.