Syntactic and Lexical Factors in Infant Verb Learning

Univ Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will explore the relationship between word meaning and syntactic distribution through a series of studies of infant language learning. In particular, I will examine the interaction between syntax and noun-meaning in the acquisition of novel verbs. While it is by now well-established that children can use syntactic information to guide the acquisition of novel verbs, this project asks about the relative contributions of purely syntactic information and the meanings of co-occurring nouns as sources of information for infant verb-learners. This project represents the first step in a longer program of research on infant verb learning. Here, I will examine the acquisition of intransitive manner of motion verbs by English-learning infants in a range of experimental conditions. In particular, I will examine whether infants can learn a novel verb when it is presented with its semantic arguments but no syntax, when it is presented with syntactic arguments that do not rigidly denote any object (e.g., pronouns), when it is presented with syntactic arguments that are themselves novel nouns, and when it is presented with known nouns serving as syntactic arguments. By manipulating the syntactic and semantic information conveyed in the presentation of a novel verb, we can better determine the information that infant language learners use in identifying the meaning of novel verbs in general. A second aim is to identify the importance of syntactic and semantic information in verb learning as a function of the learner's current state of knowledge. The latter aim will be achieved by testing infants across the second year of life. Results of this project will feed into work examining a broader range of verb classes and a broader range of languages, so that a maximally general theory of the relative contributions of syntactic and lexical information to verb learning can be developed. This basic research will inform theories of normal linguistic development and may ultimately lead to insights concerning language acquisition in bilingual environments and by children with specific language impairments.