Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Symbols used in transcription
- Pronunciation table
- PART I INTRODUCTORY SECTIONS
- PART II INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND AUXILIARY VERB LEARNING IN SEVEN CHILDREN
- 3 Research design
- 4 Rate of development
- 5 Indicators of analytic and piecemeal learning
- 6 The complexity principle as an indicator of holistic learning
- 7 Individual differences and the development of auxiliaries in tag questions
- 8 The development of auxiliary DO
- 9 The development of CAN
- PART III ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN AUXILIARY VERB LEARNING
- Notes
- References
- Index
6 - The complexity principle as an indicator of holistic learning
from PART II - INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND AUXILIARY VERB LEARNING IN SEVEN CHILDREN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Symbols used in transcription
- Pronunciation table
- PART I INTRODUCTORY SECTIONS
- PART II INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND AUXILIARY VERB LEARNING IN SEVEN CHILDREN
- 3 Research design
- 4 Rate of development
- 5 Indicators of analytic and piecemeal learning
- 6 The complexity principle as an indicator of holistic learning
- 7 Individual differences and the development of auxiliaries in tag questions
- 8 The development of auxiliary DO
- 9 The development of CAN
- PART III ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN AUXILIARY VERB LEARNING
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
The Complexity Principle which was introduced in Section 3.1 assumes that analytic learning proceeds from the syntactically less complex to the syntactically more complex. If in the emergence of syntactic structures this principle appears to be violated, it can be taken as an indication that the complex structures have been acquired holistically. In this chapter four syntactic processes will be considered in relation to base forms: negation, ellipsis, formation of questions, and contraction. In addition, where obligatory contexts can be identified, the transcripts will be examined for instances of early auxiliary inclusion which precede unfilled obligatory contexts. Finally, the development of tags will be analysed as a system which in its mature form depends among other things on a knowledge of all four processes listed above.
The results of these analyses will then be combined to test whether tendencies to use unanalysed structures are consistent across different domains. In all cases the analysis rests on Emergence rather than Acquisition, emergence being defined as the sampling of a single token, and the characteristic sequence of emergence for all seven children will be established before violations of the principle ‘simple precedes complex’ are considered. In doing so, any areas where apparently more complex structures emerge first can be identified.
Principle 1: affirmative forms precede negated forms
Negation of the auxiliary was usually achieved by the contracted negative particle ‘-n't’. There are only twelve tokens of auxiliaries followed by uncontracted ‘not’ in the whole database, and a further seven tokens in unfilled obligatory contexts (# ‘it not going’).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language Development and Individual DifferencesA Study of Auxiliary Verb Learning, pp. 67 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990