WK2 L4: Regularisation

• What does the quality of input language affect in children?


  It affects their language and reading skills.
• How does being read to more often influence children?

  It tends to improve their language and reading skills as they grow up.
• What is the focus of the study discussed in the material?

  • Interesting case studies
  • Children exposed to simplified communication systems
  • Comparison to typical language complexity
• What is a pidgin?


  A pidgin is a simplified communication system without complex grammar.
• What is a creole?


  A creole is a language developed by children exposed to a pidgin.
• How do pidgins and creoles differ in terms of vocabulary and grammar?


  Pidgins have limited vocabulary and simple structure, while creoles have rich vocabulary and complex grammar.
• What significant event occurred in the early 1980s regarding Nicaraguan Sign Language?


  A special education school was opened.
• What was the focus of the study by Senghas, Kita, & Ozyurek (2004)?


  They studied how the early gestural system evolved into Nicaraguan Sign Language.
• How were the deaf Nicaraguans grouped in Senghas et al.'s study?


  They were grouped according to the year they were first exposed to NSL.
• What are the two components of movement described in the study?

  Manner and path.
• In the example "A cat, having swallowed a bowling ball, rolled down the hill," what does "rolling" represent?

  It represents the manner of movement.
• What did the results of Senghas et al. (2004) indicate about NSL signers compared to Spanish speakers?


  NSL signers do not always reproduce the same gestures as Spanish speakers.
• What is regularization in the context of pidgin and creole languages?


  Regularization is when people eliminate random variation by using only one of the variants.
• How does a pidgin like NSL become a creole?


  Through the process of regularization driven primarily by children.
• What is the primary driver of regularization in pidgin languages?


  Children.
• What did Singleton & Newport (2004) study regarding ASL?


  They studied deaf children learning ASL from non-native ASL users.
• What was the outcome of Simon's learning experience in ASL?


  Simon regularized his ASL usage.
• What are the four determiner conditions used in Hudson Kam & Newport's (2009) study?


  1. 100% consistent use of the determiner
  2. 60% presence/40% absence of the determiner
  3. 60% occurrence of the main determiner with 2 noise determiners
  4. 60% occurrence of the main determiner with 4 noise determiners
• What did the results of Hudson Kam & Newport (2009) indicate about children compared to adults?


  Children are more systematic users and eliminate unpredictable variation by regularizing their input.
• What is the summary of the findings regarding children's language acquisition from the study?

  • Children acquire language even with limited input.
  • They regularize input with unpredictable variation.
  • Pidgins are regularized by child speakers to become creoles.
• How do children learn linguistic variation and grammatical rules?


  They learn through statistical learning.
• What is statistical learning?


  It is the ability to identify patterns and regularities in the environment.
• What did Saffran et al. (1996) demonstrate about infants and statistical learning?


  Infants can track transitional probabilities and extract high-probability sequences of nonsense syllables.
• What did Kirkham et al. (2002) find about 9-month-old infants and statistical learning?


  They can learn the statistical nature of spatial arrangements in visual scenes.
• What does it mean for statistical learning to be domain-general?


  It means that pattern learning is present across all perceptual domains and in most animals.