Learning Biases Predict a Word Order Universal

Autor/inn/en	Culbertson, Jennifer; Smolensky, Paul; Legendre, Geraldine
Titel	Learning Biases Predict a Word Order Universal
Quelle	In: Cognition, 122 (2012) 3, S.306-329 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0277
DOI	10.1016/j.cognition.2011.10.017
Schlagwörter	Form Classes (Languages); Grammar; Linguistics; Artificial Languages; Cognitive Psychology; Word Order; Language Acquisition; Cognitive Science; Faculty; Models; Nouns + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Analytischer Sprachbau; Grammatik; Linguistik; Kognitive Psychologie; Wortfolge; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Kognitionswissenschaft; Academic Staff; Lehrkörper; Analogiemodell
Abstract	How recurrent typological patterns, or universals, emerge from the extensive diversity found across the world's languages constitutes a central question for linguistics and cognitive science. Recent challenges to a fundamental assumption of generative linguistics--that universal properties of the human language acquisition faculty constrain the types of grammatical systems which can occur--suggest the need for new types of empirical evidence connecting typology to biases of learners. Using an artificial language learning paradigm in which adult subjects are exposed to a mix of grammatical systems (similar to a period of linguistic change), we show that learners' biases mirror a word-order universal, first proposed by Joseph Greenberg, which constrains typological patterns of adjective, numeral, and noun ordering. We briefly summarize the results of a probabilistic model of the hypothesized biases and their effect on learning, and discuss the broader implications of the results for current theories of the origins of cross-linguistic word-order preferences. (Contains 7 figures and 8 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10