Distributional learning aids linguistic category formation in school-age children

J Child Lang. 2018 May;45(3):717-735. doi: 10.1017/S0305000917000435. Epub 2017 Nov 10.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine if typically developing children could form grammatical categories from distributional information alone. Twenty-seven children aged six to nine listened to an artificial grammar which contained strategic gaps in its distribution. At test, we compared how children rated novel sentences that fit the grammar to sentences that were ungrammatical. Sentences could be distinguished only through the formation of categories of words with shared distributional properties. Children's ratings revealed that they could discriminate grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. These data lend support to the hypothesis that distributional learning is a potential mechanism for learning grammatical categories in a first language.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Concept Formation*
  • Cues*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language Development*
  • Linguistics*
  • Male
  • Problem Solving
  • Semantics*
  • Speech Perception
  • Verbal Behavior