School of Psychology, University of LiverpoolSchool of Social Sciences and Law, Brunel University.
Cogn Sci. 2006 Mar 4;30(2):277-310. doi: 10.1207/s15516709cog0000_47.
In this study we use a computational model of language learning called model of syntax acquisition in children (MOSAIC) to investigate the extent to which the optional infinitive (OI) phenomenon in Dutch and English can be explained in terms of a resource-limited distributional analysis of Dutch and English child-directed speech. The results show that the same version of MOSAIC is able to simulate changes in the pattern of finiteness marking in 2 children learning Dutch and 2 children learning English as the average length of their utterances increases. These results suggest that it is possible to explain the key features of the OI phenomenon in both Dutch and English in terms of the interaction between an utterance-final bias in learning and the distributional characteristics of child-directed speech in the 2 languages. They also show how computational modeling techniques can be used to investigate the extent to which cross-linguistic similarities in the developmental data can be explained in terms of common processing constraints as opposed to innate knowledge of universal grammar.
在这项研究中，我们使用了一种称为儿童句法习得模型（MOSAIC）的语言学习计算模型，来探讨荷兰语和英语中的不定词（OI）现象在多大程度上可以用荷兰语和英语儿童导向语的资源有限分布分析来解释。结果表明，相同版本的 MOSAIC 能够模拟 2 名学习荷兰语的儿童和 2 名学习英语的儿童的有限标记模式的变化，随着他们的话语长度的增加。这些结果表明，有可能根据学习中的最终话语偏差和两种语言中儿童导向语的分布特征之间的相互作用，用来说明荷兰语和英语中 OI 现象的关键特征。它们还展示了如何使用计算建模技术来研究可以在多大程度上根据共同的处理约束而非普遍语法的内在知识，用发展数据中的跨语言相似性来解释。
