Overgeneralization and the Semantics of Negation

语言习得逻辑问题的一个方面是学习者如何从有限的输入句子中归纳出无限的句子集。这有时被称为投影问题。很明显，这种类型的泛化在形态学的习得中起着重要的作用。这一角色通过以下事实变得更加清晰：即使在这种概括产生错误结果的情况下，儿童实际上也会进行概括。英语过去式和复数形态的“u型”学习就是例证。但是泛化在除词法以外的语法领域的习得中起什么作用呢？我们的目的是探索一般学习过程如泛化在语义解释习得中发挥作用的可能性。具体而言，我们将试图发现儿童是否会将标准否定解释过度概括为“咒骂否定”的情况。咒骂否定是一种否定形式，虽然在句子中使用了否定助词，但对从句没有否定的解释。考虑到我们的试验结果表明说西班牙语的儿童会过度概括，这种情况发生在什么年龄？过度泛化是否也会发生在其他类似结构的语言中，比如俄语？我们希望这些问题的答案将有助于深入了解通用学习机制在语言发展中所起的作用。回答这类基础研究问题与心理健康有关，因为探索正常发育儿童的语言发展可以增强我们对语言作为人类认知一部分的理解。

One aspect of the logical problem of language acquisition is the question of how a learner generalizes to an infinite set of sentences from a limited set of input sentences. This is sometimes referred to as The Projection Problem. It seems abundantly clear that generalization of this type must play an important role in the acquisition of morphology. This role is made clearer by the fact that children in fact generalize even in cases where such generalization produces incorrect results. This is illustrated by cases of "U-shaped" learning of past tense and plural morphology in English. But what role does generalization play in the acquisition of grammatical domains other than morphology? Our aim is to explore the possibility that general learning processes such as generalization play a role in the acquisition of semantic interpretation. Specifically, we will attempt to discover whether or not children will overgeneralize standard negation interpretations to cases of "expletive negation." Expletive negation is a type of negation in which, though a sentential negative particle is used, no negative interpretation is conferred on the clause. Given that our pilot results suggest that child Spanish-speaker will overgeneralize, at what age(s) does this take place? Will over- generalization also take place in other languages with similar constructions, such as Russian? Our hope is that answers to these questions will lend insight into the role played by general-purpose learning mechanisms in language development. Answering this kind of basic research question is relevant to mental health in that exploring language development in normally developing children enhances our understanding of the place lf language as part of human cognition.