scholarly journals Quantifying the syntactic bootstrapping effect in verb learning: A meta‐analytic synthesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjie Cao ◽  
Molly Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Verb Learning ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping

The Structural Sources of Verb Meanings

2020 ◽  
pp. 261-312
Author(s):  
Lila R. Gleitman
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
External World ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping

This chapter presents the theory of syntactic bootstrapping. It shows fundamental problems with a theory of verb learning based solely on observations of the external world. It then shows how these problems can be overcome if those experiences are paired with information about the syntactic structure of the clause that the verb occurs in.

Input to verb learning: Evidence for the plausibility of syntactic bootstrapping.

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 827-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Letitia R. Naigles ◽  
Erika Hoff-Ginsberg
Keyword(s):  
Verb Learning ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping

Children use syntax to learn verb meanings

1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Letitia Naigles
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Experimental Validation ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping ◽  
Syntactic Information

ABSTRACTVerb learning is clearly a function of observation of real-world contingencies; however, it is argued that such observational information is insufficient to account fully for vocabulary acquisition. This paper provides an experimental validation of Landau & Gleitman's (1985) syntactic bootstrapping procedure; namely, that children may use syntactic information to learn new verbs. Pairs of actions were presented simultaneously with a nonsense verb in one of two syntactic structures. The actions were subsequently separated, and the children (MA = 2;1) were asked to select which action was the referent for the verb. The children's choice of referent was found to be a function of the syntactic structure in which the verb had appeared.

Turkish children use morphosyntactic bootstrapping in interpreting verb meaning

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
TILBE GÖKSUN ◽  
AYLIN C. KÜNTAY ◽  
LETITIA R. NAIGLES
Keyword(s):  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Turkish Children ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Verb Meaning ◽  
Syntactic Cues

ABSTRACTHow might syntactic bootstrapping apply in Turkish, which employs inflectional morphology to indicate grammatical relations and allows argument ellipsis? We investigated whether Turkish speakers interpret constructions differently depending on the number of NPs in the sentence, the presence of accusative case marking and the causative morpheme. Data were collected from 60 child speakers and 16 adults. In an adaptation of Naigles, Gleitman & Gleitman (1993), the participants acted out sentences (6 transitive and 6 intransitive verbs in four different frames). The enactments were coded for causativity. Causative enactments increased in two-argument frames and decreased in one-argument frames, albeit to a lesser extent than previously found in English. This effect was generally stronger in children than in adults. Causative enactments increased when the accusative case marker was present. The causative morpheme yielded no increase in causative enactments. These findings highlight roles for morphological and syntactic cues in verb learning by Turkish children.

Understanding How Input Matters

2020 ◽  
pp. 431-462
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Lidz ◽  
Henry Gleitman ◽  
Lila R. Gleitman
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping ◽  
Universal Properties ◽  
Structure Patterns

Studies under the heading of “syntactic bootstrapping” have demonstrated that syntax guides young children’s interpretations during verb learning. We evaluate two hypotheses concerning the origins of syntactic bootstrapping effects. The “universalist” view, holding that syntactic bootstrapping falls out from universal properties of the syntax-semantics mapping, is shown to be superior to the “emergentist” view, which holds that argument structure patterns emerge from a process of categorization and generalization over the input. These theories diverge in their predictions about a language in which syntactic structure is not the most reliable cue to a certain meaning. Experiments with Kannada speaking children and adults support the universalist view.

scholarly journals Quantifying the syntactic bootstrapping effect in verb learning: A meta-analytic synthesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjie Cao ◽  
Molly Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Gaze Following ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Situational Learning

How do children infer the meaning of a novel verb? One prominent proposal is that children rely on syntactic information in the linguistic context, a phenomenon known as “syntactic bootstrapping” (Naigles, 1990). For example, given the sentence “The bunny is gorping the duck”, a child could use knowledge of English syntactic roles to infer that “gorping” refers to an action where the bunny is acting in some way on a duck. Here, we examine the strength of the syntactic bootstrapping effect, its developmental trajectory and generalizability using meta-analytic methods. Across 60 experiments in the literature (N = 849 participants), we find a reliable syntactic bootstrapping effect (d = .24). Yet, despite its theoretical prominence, the syntactic bootstrapping effect is relatively small, comparable in size to cross-situational learning and sound symbolism, but smaller than mutual-exclusivity and gaze-following. Further, we find that the effect does not strengthen over development, and is present only for studies that use transitive sentences. An examination of a range of methodological factors suggests that the effect is not strongly influenced by methodological implementation. In the General Discussion, we consider implications of our findings for theories of verb learning and make recommendations for future research.

scholarly journals Early Verb Learning: How Do Children Learn How to Compare Events?

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane B. Childers ◽  
Rebecca Parrish ◽  
Christina V. Olson ◽  
Clare Burch ◽  
Gavin Fung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Verb Learning
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