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Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization. / St Clair, Michelle C.; Monaghan, Padraic; Ramscar, Michael.
In: Cognitive Science, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009, p. 1317-1329.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

St Clair, MC, Monaghan, P & Ramscar, M 2009, 'Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization', Cognitive Science, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 1317-1329. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01065.x

APA

St Clair, M. C., Monaghan, P., & Ramscar, M. (2009). Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization. Cognitive Science, 33(7), 1317-1329. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01065.x

Vancouver

St Clair MC, Monaghan P, Ramscar M. Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization. Cognitive Science. 2009;33(7):1317-1329. doi: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01065.x

Author

St Clair, Michelle C. ; Monaghan, Padraic ; Ramscar, Michael. / Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization. In: Cognitive Science. 2009 ; Vol. 33, No. 7. pp. 1317-1329.

Bibtex

@article{d91b73e87b514519ba6cd4c92cebdb49,
title = "Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization",
abstract = "It is a reasonable assumption that universal properties of natural languages are not accidental. They occur either because they are underwritten by genetic code, because they assist in language processing or language learning, or due to some combination of the two. In this paper we investigate one such language universal: the suffixing preference across the world's languages, whereby inflections tend to be added to the end of words. A corpus analysis of child-directed speech in English found that suffixes were more accurate at cuing the grammatical category of the root word than were prefixes. An artificial language experiment found that there was a learning advantage for suffixes over prefixes in terms of grammatical categorization within an artificial language. The results are consistent with an account of language universals that originate in general purpose learning mechanisms.",
keywords = "Language learning, Language evolution, Suffixing preference, Grammatical categorization, Corpus analysis, Human experimentation, ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE, ACQUISITION, SUBCLASSES, FREQUENCY",
author = "{St Clair}, {Michelle C.} and Padraic Monaghan and Michael Ramscar",
year = "2009",
doi = "10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01065.x",
language = "English",
volume = "33",
pages = "1317--1329",
journal = "Cognitive Science",
issn = "0364-0213",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "7",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Relationships Between Language Structure and Language Learning: The Suffixing Preference and Grammatical Categorization

AU - St Clair, Michelle C.

AU - Monaghan, Padraic

AU - Ramscar, Michael

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - It is a reasonable assumption that universal properties of natural languages are not accidental. They occur either because they are underwritten by genetic code, because they assist in language processing or language learning, or due to some combination of the two. In this paper we investigate one such language universal: the suffixing preference across the world's languages, whereby inflections tend to be added to the end of words. A corpus analysis of child-directed speech in English found that suffixes were more accurate at cuing the grammatical category of the root word than were prefixes. An artificial language experiment found that there was a learning advantage for suffixes over prefixes in terms of grammatical categorization within an artificial language. The results are consistent with an account of language universals that originate in general purpose learning mechanisms.

AB - It is a reasonable assumption that universal properties of natural languages are not accidental. They occur either because they are underwritten by genetic code, because they assist in language processing or language learning, or due to some combination of the two. In this paper we investigate one such language universal: the suffixing preference across the world's languages, whereby inflections tend to be added to the end of words. A corpus analysis of child-directed speech in English found that suffixes were more accurate at cuing the grammatical category of the root word than were prefixes. An artificial language experiment found that there was a learning advantage for suffixes over prefixes in terms of grammatical categorization within an artificial language. The results are consistent with an account of language universals that originate in general purpose learning mechanisms.

KW - Language learning

KW - Language evolution

KW - Suffixing preference

KW - Grammatical categorization

KW - Corpus analysis

KW - Human experimentation

KW - ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE

KW - ACQUISITION

KW - SUBCLASSES

KW - FREQUENCY

U2 - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01065.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01065.x

M3 - Journal article

VL - 33

SP - 1317

EP - 1329

JO - Cognitive Science

JF - Cognitive Science

SN - 0364-0213

IS - 7

ER -