LSci 51/Psych 56L: Schedule

This is our wonderful schedule. We usually keep to it, but it is subject to modification.

Date Topic Notices &
Assignments		 Reference Material
9/24/21 Introduction to
Language Acquisition I
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) What you know when you know a language
(2) Why simple imitation won't work
(3) Prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar rules


 Review questions available for intro

HW1 available
9/27/21 Introduction to
Language Acquisition II
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Learning by explicit correction
(2) Recasts
(3) Motherese intro
(4) Motherese prosody
(5) Fatherese
(6) Motherese properties
(7) Screen time interactions
(8) More motherese properties
(9) How motherese helps
(10) Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research
(11) Diary studies
(12) CHILDES database
(13) MLU & CDIs
(14) Tests of comprehension
(15) Tests of production
(16) Computational modeling overview
9/29/21 Introduction to
Language Acquisition III
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) The Language Acquisition Device
(2) Poverty of the stimulus & induction problems
(3) Statistical learning
(4) Theoretical viewpoint comparison
(5) Theoretical viewpoint comparison, another look
Post and like questions for the review session next time on the review session's discussion post
10/1/21 Review Session: Introduction to Language Acquisition
(pdf)
(recorded session)


 HW1 due

Timed Assessment 1 available
10/4/21 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition I
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) APICS demo
(2) Nicaraguan Sign Language: age differences
(3) The Language Bioprogram Hypothesis

Timed Assessment 1 due

Review questions available for biological bases of language acquisition

HW2 available
10/6/21 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition II
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Late acquisition of sign language
(2) Henner et al. 2016
(3) Investigating the critical vs. sensitive period using second language learning
(4) Hartshorne et al. 2018
(5) Critical vs. sensitive period
(6) The "Less is More" hypothesis
(7) Finn et al. 2014 & the "Less is More" hypothesis
(8) Mimicking children's acquisition experience

10/8/21 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition III
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Parrot language acquisition
(2) Teaching chimpanzees: Gua & Viki
(3) Chimpanzee vocal tract
(4) Non-human primate vocal tract: differences
(5) Teaching chimps ASL
(6) Nim Chimpsky's combinations
(7) Teaching bonobos
(8) Why non-human primates can't seem to learn language
(9) FLB vs. FLN

10/11/21 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition IV
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Rudimentary combinations in non-human primate communication
(2) Titi monkey pragmatics
(3) State diagrams
(4) Birdsong vs. human language: similarities
(5) Song acquisition vs. language acquisition: Some similarities
(6) Song acquisition vs. language acquisition: More similarities
(7) Birdsong vs. human language: differences
 Post and like questions for the review session next time on the review session's discussion post



 Extras:
10/13/21 Review Session: Biological Bases of Language Acquisition
(pdf)
(recorded session)


 HW2 due

Timed Assessment 2 available
10/15/21 Phonological Development I
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Affricates
(2) Vowels
(3) Diphthongs
 Timed Assessment 2 due

HW3 available

Review questions available for phonological development
10/18/21 Phonological Development II
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Feature combinations
(2) World Phonotactics Database demo
(3) Language & music processing
(4) Language & music developmental linking
(5) Baby babbling is language-specific
(6) Social component to phonological development
(7) The importance of babies hearing their own output
10/20/21 Phonological Development III
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Deletion processes
(2) Substitution processes
(3) Multiple process examples
(4) Multiple processes: "water" to "gaga"


 Have IPA reference charts accessible during class (especially this one)
10/22/21 Phonological Development IV
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Infant speech perception link to speech production
(2) Categorical perception decision tasks
(3) Infant categorical perception evidence
(4) Categorical perception non-humans
(5) The lack of invariance problem
(6) Motherese & sound discriminability


 Post and like questions for the review session next time on the review session's discussion post
10/25/21 Review Session: Phonological Development
(pdf)
(recorded session)


 HW3 due

Timed Assessment 3 available
10/27/21 Lexical Development I
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Compositional semantics
(2) Prototype theory and feature weights
(3) Words pick out certain concepts
(4) Tense
(5) Aspect
(6) Natural relationships between tense and aspect




 Timed Assessment 3 due

HW4 available

Review questions available for lexical development

10/29/21 Lexical Development II
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Fast mapping
(2) Lexical biases in humans vs. collies
(3) Underextension & overextension errors
(4) Whole-object assumption
(5) Mutual-exclusivity assumption
(6) Social cues to word learning
(7) Discourse cues in word learning
(8) Visual cues in word learning
11/1/21 Lexical Development III
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Noun bias in early vocabularies + why
(2) Snedeker et al. 1999
(3) Cross-linguistic variation in noun bias
(4) Snedeker & Gleitman 2002: Cues to verb learning
(5) Using known words
(6) Clues from syntactic structure
(7) Kids using syntactic structure
(8) Linguistic over social cues
(9) Syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis
(10) Braginsky et al. 2016
(11) Syntactic bootstrapping & the noun bias
(12) Syntactic bootstrapping demo: But'n'Ben A-Go-Go
  • Wordbank database
  • child input: videos 1-2 = why learning from non-linguistic context is hard, videos 3-10 = sample experimental stimuli from human simulation paradigm in Snedeker et al. 1999
  • Mobile App: What's that word?
  • Sedivy 2014, pp.168-169: why learning verbs is hard from non-linguistic contexts
  • Human Simulation Paradigm reference: Gleitman et al. 2005
  • Sedivy 2014, pp.505-506: manner-of-motion vs. direction-of-motion verbs
  • Lidz 2021 (especially introduction, section 1 (the puzzle of word learning), section 2 (why syntax might help), 3 (two dimensions of syntactic bootstrapping), 4 opening (syntax and event reference))
  • Sedivy 2014, pp.169-170: syntactic bootstrapping
  • Lidz & Perkins 2018: Using Distributional Information to Categorize Words; Syntactic Bootstrapping, pp.16-20
  • Wagner 2010: syntactic bootstrapping & argument structure
  • Fisher et al. 2010: syntactic bootstrapping
  • He & Arunchalam 2017: linguistic cues
  • Jabberwocky TED talk (when you need to use syntactic bootstrapping)
11/3/21 Lexical Development IV
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Word spurts
(2) Identifying a word spurt
(3) Leveraging known words & causes of the word spurt
(4) Known variation in lexical development
(5) Production lags behind comprehension
(6) Phonological memory
(7) Motherese & word learning (quantity & quality)
(8) Differences across SES
(9) Similarities across SES
(10) Differences within SES
(11) Conversational turn-taking as interactive input
(12) Impact of Covid-19 lockdowns
(13) Links to statistical learning


 Post and like questions for the review session next time on the review session's discussion post
11/5/21 Review Session: Lexical Development Lexical Development IV
(pdf)
(recorded session)


 HW4 due

Timed Assessment 4 available
11/8/21 Development of Morphology
(pdf)
(recorded session)


Podcasts
(1) Morpheme types
(2) Bound morpheme development
(3) English morphological development
(4) Cross-linguistic morphological development


 Timed Assessment 4 due

HW5 available

Review questions available for development of morphology & syntax
11/10/21 Development of Syntax I
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Grammar templates: Phrase structure rules & trees
(2) Recursion overview
(3) Recursion with some syntactic rules
(4) Building trees: Top-down
(5) Building syntactic trees: Bottom-up
11/12/21 Development of Syntax II
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Yes/no vs. wh-question development
(2) Order-of-mention sentence comprehension strategy
(3) World knowledge sentence comprehension strategy
(4) De Villiers 1995
(5) Zipfian distributions in language
11/15/21 Development of Syntax III
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Reversible passives & semantic features
(2) Silent things
(3) Multiple potential silent subjects
(4) Gerard et al. 2018
(5) Silent subjects and objects
(6) Becker et al. 2012, 2015
11/17/21 Development of Syntax IV
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Pronoun types
(2) Children interpreting pronouns
(3) Quantifiers and order of acquisition
(4) Quantifier scope with every-n't
(5) Quantifier scope with every-a
(6) Children's quantifier interpretations
(7) Pragmatic factors and scope

Post and like questions for the review session next time on the review session's discussion post
11/19/21 Review Session: Development of Morphology & Syntax
(pdf)
(recorded session) 		HW5 due

Timed Assessment 5 available
11/22/21 Language & Cognition
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Sentential complements and order of acquisition
(2) Standard false belief tasks
(3) Using syntactic bootstrapping to learn mental states
(4) Testing the importance of language
(5) Links to executive function
(6) Adults relying on language for theory of mind
(7) Indirect false belief tasks
(8) Parenthetical endorsements

 Timed Assessment 5 due

HW6 available

Review questions available for language & cognition
11/24/21 NO CLASS

Do something that makes you happy
11/26/21 NO CLASS
Thanksgiving Break

 Do something that makes you happy
11/29/21 Language Development in Special Populations I
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Signed language features
(2) Signers and categorical perception
(3) Simultaneous articulation
(4) Developmental errors in ASL
(5) Cochlear implants are interesting from a language development perspective
(6) Spoken language development with cochlear implants


 Review questions available for language development in special populations
12/1/21 Language Development in Special Populations II
(pdf)
(recorded session)

Podcasts
(1) Lexical development in autistic children
(2) Morphological development in autistic children
(3) Syntactic development in autistic children
(4) "Form is easy, meaning is hard" hypothesis
(5) Williams Syndrome and the Developmental Arrest Hypothesis
(6) Williams Syndrome vs. Down Syndrome


 Post and like questions for the review session next time on the review session's discussion post
12/3/21 Review Session: Language & Cognition + Special Populations
(pdf)
(recorded session)

HW6 due

Timed Assessment 6 available

Timed Assessment Extra Credit available

Optional extra credit paper topic must be approved



12/6/21
Timed Assessment 6 due

Timed Assessment Extra Credit due

Optional extra credit paper due

All late HW assignments due to receive any partial credit