Situated Language Learning – Investigating the Interface of Word and Syntax Acquisition
Speaker: Judith Köhne
Institution: Saarland University
Abstract:
Word learning and syntax learning have been studied separately most of the time. However, there are important interdependencies between them. Moreover, studying word and syntax learning in isolation is not quite natural: Words are embedded in sentences most of the time. Also, although the visual context often plays a role in language learning, grammar acquisition has not been investigated situatedly. I am therefore suggesting a new experimental method, the situated language-learning paradigm, which combines observational word learning with cue-aided syntax learning, within a visual context. This method will provide new ways for investigating the interplay of word learning and syntax learning, such as the question about how far word-world mappings (reference) are necessary for the acquisition of (which kinds of) (morpho)syntactic categories.
