Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of input in the acquisition of factivity

语言被用来交流思想和传递信息，因为它可以反映我们个人的信仰是什么，我们共同的信仰是什么。例如，在对话中使用“知道”和“思考”这样的词的方式反映了对话参与者对他们所相信的东西的确定程度，他们是否同意他们正在讨论的东西，以及他们认为的事实或观点。这个项目研究了孩子们如何理解像“知道”和“思考”这样的信念词如何在对话中促进信息交换。不同背景的孩子对这些词有相似的经历吗？在一定程度上存在差异，这种差异是如何促成对这些单词获得成人般理解的差异的？为了回答这些问题，本项目首先进行语料库分析，调查父母如何使用信念词在与学龄前儿童交谈。然后，将这些语料库结果与行为方法相结合，以揭示语言经验如何与儿童掌握这些单词有关。了解儿童如何学习“知道”和“思考”等单词，对于了解日后学术和职业成功的影响因素非常重要。具体来说，这些词需要理解信息通过对话交换和沟通的方式。因此，理解这些词语可以帮助孩子们更好地理解对话伙伴的想法以及他们为什么这么想。这反过来又可以让孩子们更好地理解学术和专业交流，并可能在学校取得更大的成就，最终在职业生涯中取得更大的成就。

Language is used to communicate ideas and transfer information because it can reflect what our individual beliefs are and what our shared beliefs are. As one example, the way that words like "know" and "think" are used within a conversation reflects how sure the conversational participants are about what they believe, whether they agree about what they are discussing, and what they take to be facts or opinions. This project examines how children come to understand how belief words like "know" and "think" contribute to the exchange of information within a conversation. Do children from different backgrounds have similar experiences with these words? And to the degree that there are differences, how does that variation contribute to differences in acquiring an adult-like understanding of these words? To answer these questions, this project first conducts corpus analyses to investigate how parents use belief words in talking to their preschool-aged children. Then, these corpus results are combined with behavioral methods to reveal how linguistic experience relates to children's mastery of these words.Finding out how children come to learn words like "know" and "think" is important in understanding contributing factors to later academic and professional success. Specifically, these words require an understanding of the ways that information is exchanged and communicated through conversations. As a result, understanding these words leads to mastery in interpreting what their conversational partners believe and why they believe it. This, in turn, allows children to better understand academic and professional communication and may lead to greater achievement in school, and ultimately, in their careers.