L700/P657/Q700
Approaches to Language Development: Words

This course will concentrate on children's acquisition of the lexicon, considering issues in semantics and morphology as they interact with lexical acquisition. We will study the empirical facts of children's word acquisition by reading Eve Clark's The Lexicon in Acquisition (1993). We will consider and evaluate theories of development and the lexicon by reading published papers by theorists in linguistics, psycholinguistics, child language, and cognitive science. The requirements of the course are completing the readings, intelligent participation in discussions and debates, and a major paper consisting of a research proposal on a selected topic in lexical acquisition, an acquisition-oriented linguistic analysis, or a presentation of a computer model of some relevant data.

Prerequisites for the course are at least one graduate course in one of the language sciences (linguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics) or permission of the instructors.

Instructors

Overview

Statistics

• Clark, Eve V. (1993). The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Weeks 1-3
  • Braine, M. D. S. (1994). Is nativism sufficient? Journal of Child Language, 21, 9-31.
  • Elman, J., Bates, E., Johnson, M., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Parisi, D., Plunkett, K. (1996) Rethinking innateness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. chapters 1, 3 and 6.
  • Hirsh-Pasek, K & Golinkoff, R. M. (1996). The origins of grammar, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chapter 2.
  • Lakoff, G. (1987) Women, fire and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Preface, chapters 2 and 11.
  • Markman, E. (1992) Constraints on word learning: Speculations about their origins and domain specificity. In M.R. Gunnar & M. Maratsos (eds.) Modularity and constraints in language and cognition, Hillsdale, NJ: LEA, 59-102.
  • Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York: W. Morrow Chapter 9.
  • Quine, W.V.O. (1960) Word and object. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 26-46.
  • Siegler, R.S. (1992) What do developmental psychologists really want? In M.R. Gunnar & M. Maratsos (eds.) Modularity and constraints in language and cognition, Hillsdale, NJ: LEA, 221-231.
• Weeks 4-5
  • Glucksberg, S. (1988) Language and thought. In R. Sternberg & E.E. Smith, (eds.) The psychology of thought, (pp. 214-241). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Gomez-Imbert, E. (1996). When animals become "rounded" and "feminine": Conceptual categories and linguistic classification in a multilingual setting. In J. J. Gumperz & S. C. Levinson (eds.) Rethinking linguistic relativity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 438-469.
  • Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 18.
  • MacLaury, R.E. (1992) From brightness to hue: an explanatory model of color-category evolution. Current Anthropology, 33, 137-186.
  • Smith, L. B. & Sera, M. D. (1992) A developmental analysis of the polar structure of dimensions. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 99-142.
• Weeks 6-7
  • Harris, M., Yeeles, C., Chasin, J., & Oakley, Y. (1995). Symmetries and asymmetries in early lexical comprehension and production. Journal of Child Language, 22, 1-18.
  • Naigles, L. G. & Gelman, S. A. (1995). Overextensions in comprehension and production revisited: preferential-looking in a study of dog, cat, and cow. Journal of Child Language, 22, 19-46.
  • Schafer, G. & Plunkett, K. (1996). Rapid word learning by 15-month-olds under tightly controlled conditions. Newsletter of the Center for Research in Language (San Diego), 10, no. 5.
• Later weeks (coming)

• Mon, 20 Jan, PSY101, 7:00-8:30; Susan T. Dumais, Information Sciences Research Group, Bellcore; "The Meaning of Words: From Practical Problem to Theory"
• Fri, 28 Feb, PSY101, 5:00-6:30; Peter Culicover, Ohio State University; "Dynamical Grammar"
• Thu, 30 Jan, LIB 031, 4:00-5:00; Alexander Meystel, National Institute of Standards, "Evolution of Life and Intelligence"