Research Project
6464513
One aspect of the logical problem of language acquisition is the question of how a learner generalizes to an infinite set of sentences from a limited set of input sentences. This is sometimes referred to as The Projection Problem. It seems abundantly clear that generalization of this type must play an important role in the acquisition of morphology. This role is made clearer by the fact that children in fact generalize even in cases where such generalization produces incorrect results. This is illustrated by cases of "U-shaped" learning of past tense and plural morphology in English. But what role does generalization play in the acquisition of grammatical domains other than morphology? Our aim is to explore the possibility that general learning processes such as generalization play a role in the acquisition of semantic interpretation. Specifically, we will attempt to discover whether or not children will overgeneralize standard negation interpretations to cases of "expletive negation." Expletive negation is a type of negation in which, though a sentential negative particle is used, no negative interpretation is conferred on the clause. Given that our pilot results suggest that child Spanish-speaker will overgeneralize, at what age(s) does this take place? Will over- generalization also take place in other languages with similar constructions, such as Russian? Our hope is that answers to these questions will lend insight into the role played by general-purpose learning mechanisms in language development. Answering this kind of basic research question is relevant to mental health in that exploring language development in normally developing children enhances our understanding of the place lf language as part of human cognition.
