The Acquisition of Grammatical Categories by Infants

像名词和动词这样的语法范畴是语言结构的基石，控制着单词的排序、重排和修饰。 因此，为了学习一种特定的语言是如何结构的，孩子必须首先确定类别是如何结构的：什么是名词，动词，有形容词吗？首席研究员最近的研究表明，孩子可以使用单词线性顺序的模式来得出关于类别的结论（例如，在英语中，“you "后面和”it“前面的词通常是动词。然而，许多关键问题仍然存在。 例如，有许多种模式可能被用来对单词进行分类;我们不知道婴儿会注意哪些特定的模式并使用它们来形成类别。 也不知道在结构上与英语非常不同的语言中的类别是否可以以类似的方式学习。 因此，我们还不能确切地了解婴儿有什么样的学习机制，以及他们进行什么样的计算来对单词进行分类。 这个项目通过一系列的成人和婴儿实验来解决这些问题，使用真实的和人工语言，来调查非常年幼的儿童如何对单词进行分类。与此同时，该项目对与英语在词序属性方面非常不同的语言进行了计算分析。 该项目解决了有关儿童语言学习基本方面的学习过程和表征的关键问题。 了解儿童最初如何对单词进行分类，对于了解他们如何获得语言的句法以及他们如何学习单词含义至关重要。 这些问题的答案可能对语言习得领域产生重大的理论影响，并可能为发展性语言障碍和成人第二语言习得理论提供信息。

Grammatical categories like noun and verb are the building blocks of structure in language, controlling the way in which words are ordered, rearranged, and modified. Hence, in order to learn how a particular language is structured, a child must first determine how the categories are structured: what are the nouns, the verbs, are there adjectives, etc. Recent research by the Principal Investigator has shown that children can use patterns in the linear order of words to draw conclusions about categories (e.g., words following the word ''you'' and preceding the word ''it'' are often verbs in English). However, many critical questions remain. For instance, there are many kinds of patterns that potentially could be used to classify words; it is not known which particular patterns infants attend to and use to form categories. Nor is it known whether categories in languages that are structurally very different from English could be learned in similar ways. Consequently, it is not yet understood precisely what kinds of learning mechanisms infants have at their disposal, and what kinds of computations they carry out to categorize words. This project addresses these issues in a series of experiments with adults and infants, using both real and artificial languages, to investigate how very young children categorize words. Concurrently, the project undertakes computational analyses of languages that are very different from English in how their word-order properties. This project addresses crucial questions about the learning processes and representations involved in fundamental aspects of language learning in children. Understanding how children initially categorize words is crucial to understanding how they acquire the syntax of their language, and how they learn word meanings. The answers to these questions could have a significant theoretical impact on the field of language acquisition and will potentially inform theories on developmental language disabilities, and second language acquisition in adults.