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The role of frequency in the acquisition of English word order

Publication ,  Journal Article
Matthews, D; Lieven, E; Theakston, A; Tomasello, M
Published in: Cognitive Development
January 1, 2005

Akhtar [Akhtar, N. (1999). Acquiring basic word order: Evidence for data-driven learning of syntactic structure. Journal of Child Language, 26, 339-356] taught children novel verbs in ungrammatical word orders. Her results suggested that the acquisition of canonical word order is a gradual, data-driven process. The current study adapted this methodology, using English verbs of different frequencies, to test whether children's use of word order as a grammatical marker depends upon the frequency of the lexical items being ordered. Ninety-six children in two age groups (2;9 and 3;9) heard either high frequency, medium frequency or low frequency verbs that were modeled in SOV order. Children aged 2;9 who heard low frequency verbs were significantly more likely to adopt the weird word order than those who heard higher frequency verbs. Children aged 3;9 preferred to use SVO order regardless of verb frequency. Furthermore, the younger children reverted to English word order using more arguments as verb frequency increased and used more pronouns than their older counterparts. This suggests that the ability to use English word order develops from lexically specific schemas formed around frequent, distributionally regular items (e.g. verbs, pronouns) into more abstract, productive schemas as experience of the language is accrued. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

January 1, 2005

Volume

20

Issue

1

Start / End Page

121 / 136

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
 

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Matthews, D., Lieven, E., Theakston, A., & Tomasello, M. (2005). The role of frequency in the acquisition of English word order. Cognitive Development, 20(1), 121–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.08.001
Matthews, D., E. Lieven, A. Theakston, and M. Tomasello. “The role of frequency in the acquisition of English word order.” Cognitive Development 20, no. 1 (January 1, 2005): 121–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.08.001.
Matthews D, Lieven E, Theakston A, Tomasello M. The role of frequency in the acquisition of English word order. Cognitive Development. 2005 Jan 1;20(1):121–36.
Matthews, D., et al. “The role of frequency in the acquisition of English word order.” Cognitive Development, vol. 20, no. 1, Jan. 2005, pp. 121–36. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.08.001.
Matthews D, Lieven E, Theakston A, Tomasello M. The role of frequency in the acquisition of English word order. Cognitive Development. 2005 Jan 1;20(1):121–136.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

January 1, 2005

Volume

20

Issue

1

Start / End Page

121 / 136

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing