Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T18:12:03.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Error assimilation as a mechanism in language learning*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Carole Butler Platt  and
Brian MacWhinney
Carole Butler Platt
Affiliation:
University of Denver
Brian MacWhinney
Affiliation:
Carnegie-Mellon University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present study tests the hypothesis that many of the grammatical errors that occur during the course of language development can serve as ‘auto-input’ leading directly to the acquisition of new expressive forms. A free-speech corpus of grammatically incorrect sentences was gathered from each of 4 four-year-old subjects. Three additional sets of sentences were constructed: sentences containing errors similar to those actually produced, sentences containing ‘baby errors’ and correct sentences. The children were asked to judge these sentences as correct or incorrect. Significantly fewer corrections were made in the sentences with subject-generated errors than in the sentences with similar errors or ‘baby errors’. These results can be explained by assuming that children learn their own errors.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 401 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Address for correspondence: Carole Butler Platt, Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.

References

REFERENCES

Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. & Hanlon, C. (1970). Derivational complexity and order of acquisition in child speech. In Hayesz, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Carroll, J., Davies, P. & Richman, B. (1971). The American heritage word frequency book. New York: American Heritage.Google Scholar
de Villiers, J. & de Villiers, P. (1972). Early judgments of semantic and syntactic acceptability by children. JPsycholingRes 1. 299–310.Google ScholarPubMed
Jacoby, L. (1978). On interpreting the effects of repetition: solving a problem versus remembering a solution. JVLVB 17. 649–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuczaj, S. (1976). -ing, -s, and -ed: a study of the acquisition of certain verb inflections. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. (1978). Children's judgments of grammatical and ungrammatical irregular past-tense verbs. ChDev 49. 319–26.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1975). Pragmatic patterns in child syntax. PRCLD 10. 153–65.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1978). The acquisition of morphophonology. Monogr. Soc. Res. Ch. Devel. 39. (3).Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1981). Basic syntactic processes. In Kuczaj, S. (ed.), Language development: syntax and semantics. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (1982). A theory of the acquisition of lexical interpretive grammars. In Bresnan, J. (ed.), The mental representation of grammatical relations. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Wexler, K. & Culicover, P. (1980). Formal principles of language acquisition. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar