Becoming syntactic.
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2006
- journal article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Psychological Review
- Vol. 113 (2) , 234-272
- https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.113.2.234
Abstract
Psycholinguistic research has shown that the influence of abstract syntactic knowledge on performance is shaped by particular sentences that have been experienced. To explore this idea, the authors applied a connectionist model of sentence production to the development and use of abstract syntax. The model makes use of (a) error-based learning to acquire and adapt sequencing mechanisms and (b) meaning-form mappings to derive syntactic representations. The model is able to account for most of what is known about structural priming in adult speakers, as well as key findings in preferential looking and elicited production studies of language acquisition. The model suggests how abstract knowledge and concrete experience are balanced in the development and use of syntax.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Science Foundation (SBR 94-11627; 98-73450)
- National Institutes of Health (R01 HD21011; T32MH 1819990; HD-44455; DC-00191)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
This publication has 150 references indexed in Scilit:
- Starting at the end: the importance of goals in spatial languagePublished by Elsevier ,2004
- Structure and Deterioration of Semantic Memory: A Neuropsychological and Computational Investigation.Psychological Review, 2004
- Paradox lost? No, paradox found! Reply to Tomasello and Akhtar (2003)Cognition, 2003
- The persistence of optional complementizer production: Why saying “that” is not saying “that” at allJournal of Memory and Language, 2003
- Learning and development in neural networks: the importance of starting smallPublished by Elsevier ,2002
- Discreteness and interactivity in spoken word production.Psychological Review, 2000
- Fourteen- through 18-month-old infants differentially imitate intentional and accidental actionsInfant Behavior and Development, 1998
- Slot and frame patterns and the development of the determiner categoryApplied Psycholinguistics, 1997
- Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers.Psychological Review, 1997
- Young children's productivity with word order and verb morphology.Developmental Psychology, 1997