title: How do children restrict their linguistic generalizations? An (un-)grammaticality judgment study.
abstract: A paradox at the heart of language acquisition research is that, to achieve adult-like competence, children must acquire the ability to generalize verbs into non-attested structures, while avoiding utterances that are deemed ungrammatical by native speakers. For example, children must learn that, to denote the reversal of an action, un- can be added to many verbs, but not all (e.g., roll/unroll; close/*unclose). This study compared theoretical accounts of how this is done. Children aged 5-6 (N=18), 9-10 (N=18), and adults (N=18) rated the acceptability of un- prefixed forms of 48 verbs (and, as a control, bare forms). Across verbs, a negative correlation was observed between the acceptability of ungrammatical un- prefixed forms (e.g., *unclose) and the frequency of (a) the bare form and (b) alternative forms (e.g., open), supporting the entrenchment and pre-emption hypotheses, respectively. Independent ratings of the extent to which verbs instantiate the semantic properties characteristic of a hypothesized semantic cryptotype for un- prefixation were a significant positive predictor of acceptability, for all age groups. The relative importance of each factor differed for attested and unattested un- forms and also varied with age. The findings are interpreted in the context of a new hybrid account designed to incorporate the three factors of entrenchment, pre-emption, and verb semantics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Health & Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZA, UK. Ben.Ambridge@Liverpool.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ambridge
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult