Hermann Ackermann, Wolfram Ziegler
Audra Ames, Sara Wielandt, Dianne Cameron, Stan Kuczaj
David Ardell, Noelle Anderson, Bodo Winter
Rie Asano, Edward Ruoyang Shi
Mark Atkinson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Andreas Baumann, Christina Prömer, Kamil Kazmierski, Nikolaus Ritt
Christian Bentz
Aleksandrs Berdicevskis, Hanne Eckhoff
Richard A. Blythe, Alistair H. Jones, Jessica Renton
Cedric Boeckx, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Antonio Benítez-Burraco
Megan Broadway, Jamie Klaus, Billie Serafin, Heidi Lyn
Jon W. Carr, Kenny Smith, Hannah Cornish, Simon Kirby
Federica Cavicchio, Livnat Leemor, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Wendy Sandler
Zanna Clay, Jahmaira Archbold, Klaus Zuberbuhler
Katie Collier, Andrew N. Radford, Balthasar Bickel, Marta B. Manser, Simon W. Townsend
Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby, Marieke Schouwstra
Christine Cuskley, Vittorio Loreto
Christine Cuskley, Bernardo Monechi, Pietro Gravino, Vittorio Loreto
Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Sabrina Engesser, Amanda R. Ridley, Simon W. Townsend
Dankmar Enke, Roland Mühlenbernd, Igor Yanovich
Kerem Eryilmaz, Hannah Little, Bart de Boer
Nicolas Fay, Shane Rogers
Maryia Fedzechkina, Becky Chu, T. Florian Jaeger, John Trueswell
Olga Feher, Kenny Smith, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Nikolaus Ritt
Piera Filippi, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Daniel Liu Bowling, Larissa Heege, Albert Newen, Onur Güntürkün, Bart de Boer
Piera Filippi, Jenna V. Congdon, John Hoang, Daniel Liu Bowling, Stephan Reber, Andrius Pašukonis, Marisa Hoeschele, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Bart de Boer, Christopher B. Sturdy, Albert Newen, Onur GÜntÜrkÜn
Molly Flaherty, Katelyn Stangl, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Marlen Fröhlich, Paul H Kuchenbuch, Gudrun Müller, Barbara Fruth, Takeshi Furuichi, Roman M Wittig, Simone Pika
Victor Gay, Daniel Hicks, Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
Andreea Geambasu, Michelle J. Spierings, Carel ten Cate, Clara C. Levelt
Matt Hall, Russell Richie, Marie Coppola
Stefan Hartmann, Peeter Tinits, Jonas Nölle, Thomas Hartmann, Michael Pleyer
Wolfram Hinzen, Joana Rosselló
Rick Janssen, Bodo Winter, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik, Sean Roberts
Rick Janssen, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Jasmeen Kanwal, Kenny Smith, Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby
Deborah Kerr, Kenny Smith
Buddhamas Kriengwatana, Paola Escudero, Anne Kerkhoven, Carel ten Cate
Adriano Lameira, Jeremy Kendal, Marco Gamba
Molly Lewis, Michael C. Frank
Casey Lister, Tiarn Burtenshaw, Nicolas Fay, Bradley Walker, Jeneva Ohan
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Giuseppe Longobardi, Armin Buch, Andrea Ceolin, Aaron Ecay, Cristina Guardiano, Monica Irimia, Dimitris Michelioudakis, Nina Radkevich, Gerhard Jaeger
Heidi Lyn, Stephanie Jett, Megan Broadway, Mystera Samuelson
Michael Mcloughlin, Luca Lamoni, Ellen Garland, Simon Ingram, Alexis Kirke, Michael Noad, Luke Rendell, Eduardo Miranda
Adrien Meguerditchian, Damien Marie, Konstantina Margiotoudi, Scott A. Love, Alice Bertello, Romain Lacoste, Muriel Roth, Bruno Nazarian, Jean-Luc Anton, Olivier Coulon
Jérôme Michaud
Ashley Micklos
Marie Montant, Johannes Ziegler, Benny Briesemeister, Tila Brink, Bruno Wicker, Aurélie Ponz, Mireille Bonnard, Arthur Jacobs, Mario Braun
Yasamin Motamedi, Marieke Schouwstra, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Roland Mühlenbernd, Johannes Wahle
Tomoya Nakai, Kazuo Okanoya
Savithry Namboodiripad, Daniel Lenzen, Ryan Lepic, Tessa Verhoef
Alan Nielsen, Dieuwke Hupkes, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Bill Noble, Raquel Fernández
Irene M. Pepperberg, Katia Zilber-Izhar, Scott Smith
Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan, Bodo Winter, Dominic Massaro
Ljiljana Progovac
Andrea Ravignani, Tania Delgado, Simon Kirby
Terry Regier, Alexandra Carstensen, Charles Kemp
Lilia Rissman, Laura Horton, Molly Flaherty, Marie Coppola, Annie Senghas, Diane Brentari, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Gareth Roberts, Mariya Fedzechkina
Carmen Saldana, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Carlos Santana
William Schueller, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Catriona Silvey, Christos Christodoulopoulos
Katie Slocombe, Stuart Watson, Anne Schel, Claudia Wilke, Emma Wallace, Leveda Cheng, Victoria West, Simon Townsend
Ruth Sonnweber, Andrea Ravignani
Michelle Spierings, Carel ten Cate
Kevin Stadler, Elyse Jamieson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Monica Tamariz, Joleana Shurley
Monica Tamariz, Jon W. Carr
Bill Thompson, Heikki Rasilo
Oksana Tkachman, Carla L. Hudson Kam
Simon Townsend, Andrew Russell, Sabrina Engesser
Francesca Tria, Vittorio Loreto, Vito Servedio, S. Mufwene Salikoko
Anu Vastenius, Jordan Zlatev, Joost Van de Weijer
Tessa Verhoef, Carol Padden, Simon Kirby
Slawomir Wacewicz, Przemyslaw Zywiczynski, Arkadiusz Jasinski
Bodo Winter, David Ardell
Bodo Winter, Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan
Marieke Woensdregt, Kenny Smith, Chris Cummins, Simon Kirby
Eva Zehentner, Andreas Baumann, Nikolaus Ritt, Christina Prömer
Keywords: Language acquisition, Language processing, Linguistic universals, Language change, Miniature artificial language learning
Abstract:
Why do languages share structural commonalities? One long-standing tradition has argued that linguistic universals reflect pressures on language use: languages have evolved to better suit the needs of human information processing and communication (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982). By what means these pressures come to shape language evolution, however, remains unknown. In a series of experiments, we explore the possibility that processing pressures operate during language acquisition, biasing learners to deviate from the input they receive, thus changing the input to the subsequent generation of learners and ultimately causing a shift towards a linguistic system that explicitly expresses these biases.
We modeled the situation of language change in the laboratory using a miniature language learning paradigm (Hudson Kam & Newport, 2005; Kirby et al., 2008). In all experiments, we exposed participants (adult monolingual native speakers of English) to miniature languages with several competing forms that expressed the same meaning. In training (administered over 3x1h-sessions on consecutive days), participants heard utterances in a novel language paired with videos depicting simple transitive actions performed by male actors. Participants first learned novel nouns, and then heard sentences using these nouns along with novel verbs. At the end of each session, learners described novel videos in the new language. We studied the deviations from the input in learners’ productions.
Experiment 1 tested whether learners are biased against longer dependencies (words that depend on each other for interpretation) as they are associated with greater processing difficulty. Different groups of learners were exposed to two miniature languages that were either head-initial (VSO/VOS word order) or head-final (SOV/OSV word order). All utterances were disambiguated through obligatory case-marking on objects (never subjects). In exposure sentences, subjects and objects were either both long (i.e., modified by a prepositional phrase in the head-initial language or by a postpositional phrase in head-final language, as cross-linguistically common) or both short (no modification). Balanced word order (SO/OS 50/50%) was maintained in all sentence types. Videos in the production test manipulated constituent length by requiring modification of one constituent (subject or object) or neither of the constituents. We find that despite receiving only unbiased (short-short, long-long) input, learners of the head-initial language followed the short-before-long ordering (p<0.05), but learners of the head-final language showed the inverse long-before-short preference (p<0.001). These results suggest that learners are indeed biased towards shorter linguistic dependencies.
Experiment 2 explored whether learners are biased to provide informative cues early as it permits faster parsing decisions. The two miniature languages had SOV/OSV word order variation (50/50%) and optional case-marking (present 67%), but differed in its locus. In the subject-marking language, subjects but not objects were optionally case-marked independently of word order. In the object-marking language, objects were case-marked independently of word order (never subjects). Thus, the languages differed in the word order that allowed earliest disambiguation in case-marked sentences (SOV in the subject-marking and OSV in the object-marking language). We found that only learners of the object-marking language preferentially used case-marking at the earliest point of disambiguation in OSV sentences (p<0.001). Learners of the subject-marking language marked both SOV and OSV orders equally often (p>0.7) and significantly more frequently than the input on the final day of training (p<0.05). We argue that this behavior is indicative of two preferences influencing language production – a bias to provide informative cues early and a bias to case-mark the less expected (i.e., non-English object-before-subject order) since the two pressures work in the same direction for the object-marking language and in opposite directions for the subject-marking language.
Our results suggest that biases in acquisition are reflected in typologically frequent patterns and can account for cross-linguistic structural similarities in natural languages. At least some of these biases stem from pressures of incremental processing: Even though our languages allowed several alternatives, learners consistently preferred structures that increased processing efficiency.
References
Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1982). Functionalist approaches to grammar. In E. Wanner & L. Gleitman (Eds.), Language Acquisition: the State of the Art (pp. 173-218). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hudson Kam, C., & Newport, E. (2005). Regularizing unpredictable variation: The roles of adult and child learners in language formation and change. Lang Learn Dev, 1(2), 151-195.
Kirby, S., Cornish, H., & Smith, K. (2008). Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 105(31), 10681.
Citation:
Fedzechkina M., Chu B., Jaeger T. F. and Trueswell J. (2016). Processing Preferences Shape Language Change. In S.G. Roberts, C. Cuskley, L. McCrohon, L. Barceló-Coblijn, O. Fehér & T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11). Available online: http://evolang.org/neworleans/papers/101.html