This is our wonderful schedule. We usually keep to it, but it is subject to modification.

Date Topic Notices &
Assignments
Reference Material
9/29/17 Introduction to
Language Acquisition I

(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar rules


Review questions available for intro

HW1 available
10/2/17 Introduction to
Language Acquisition II

(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Learning by correction
(2) Computational modeling


10/4/17 Introduction to
Language Acquisition III

(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Poverty of the stimulus & induction problems
(2) Theoretical viewpoint comparison



10/6/17 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition I
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) APICS demo
(2) Nicaraguan Sign Language: individual differences


HW1 due

HW2 available

Review questions available for biological bases of language acquisition
10/9/17 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition II
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Late acquisition of sign language
(2) Henner et al. 2016
(3) Investigating the critical vs. sensitive period using second language learning
(4) Critical vs. sensitive period
(5) The "Less is More" hypothesis
(6) Finn et al. 2014 & the "Less is More" hypothesis


10/11/17 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition III
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Nim Chimpsky's combinations
(2) Teaching bonobos
(3) FLB vs. FLN




10/13/17 Biological Bases of Language Acquisition IV
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) State diagrams
(2) Bird communication vs. human language: similarities
(3) Bird communication vs. human language: differences




Extras:
10/16/17 Exam 1 Review
Come with questions to class

HW2 due



10/18/17 Exam 1
Locations available:
HSLH 100A
& anywhere you have internet access


Make sure to have your coursebooks and notes available during the exam
10/20/17 Phonological Development I
(pdf)
HW3 available

Review questions available for phonological development

10/23/17 Phonological Development II
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Feature combinations
(2) World Phonotactics Database demo
(3) World Phonotactics Database: feature combinations
(4) Language & music developmental linking
(5) Baby babbling is language-specific
(6) Social component to phonological development
(7) Infant speech perception link to speech production



10/25/17 Phonological Development III
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Categorical perception decision tasks
(2) Infant categorical perception evidence
(3) Categorical perception non-humans


10/27/17 Phonological Development IV
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Deletion processes
(2) Substitution processes
(3) Multiple process examples


Have IPA reference charts accessible during class
10/30/17 Lexical Development I
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Prototype theory and feature weights
(2) Compositional semantics
(3) Tense
(4) Aspect
(5) Natural relationships between tense and aspect




HW3 due

HW4 available

Review questions available for lexical development

11/1/17 Lexical Development II
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Fast mapping
(2) Lexical biases in humans vs. collies
(3) Underextension & overextension errors
(4) Lexical biases in young children
(5) Social cues to word learning



11/3/17 NO CLASS


Be working on the lexical development review questions & HW4
11/6/17 Lexical Development III
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Noun learning
(2) Manner of motion vs. Direction of motion verbs
(3) Snedeker & Gleitman 2002: Cues to verb learning
(4) Paquette-Smith & Johnson 2016
(5) Fisher, Klingler, & Song 2006



  • child input: videos 1-2 = why learning from non-linguistic context is hard, videos 3-10 = sample experimental stimuli from human simulation paradigm in Snedeker et al. 1999
  • Mobile App: What's that word?
  • Sedivy 2014, pp.168-169: why learning verbs is hard from non-linguistic contexts
  • Human Simulation Paradigm reference: Gleitman et al. 2005
  • Sedivy 2014, pp.505-506: manner-of-motion vs. direction-of-motion verbs
  • Sedivy 2014, pp.169-170: syntactic bootstrapping
  • Wagner 2010: syntactic bootstrapping & argument structure
  • Fisher et al. 2010: syntactic bootstrapping
  • He & Arunchalam 2017: linguistics cues
11/8/16 Lexical Development IV
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Identifying a word spurt

11/10/17 NO CLASS:
Happy Veterans Day!



11/13/17 Exam 2 Review
Come with questions to class

HW4 due



11/15/17 Exam 2
Locations available:
HSLH 100A
& anywhere you have internet access


Make sure to have your coursebooks and notes available during the exam
11/17/17 Development of Morphology
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Morpheme types
(2) English morphological development
(3) Cross-linguistic morphological development


HW5 available

Review questions available for development of morphology & syntax
11/20/17 Development of Syntax I
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Recursion overview
(2) Recursion with some syntactic rules
(3) Building trees: Top-down
(4) Building syntactic trees: Bottom-up


11/22/17 Development of Syntax II
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Yes/no vs. wh-question development
(2) Order-of-mention sentence comprehension strategy
(3) World knowledge sentence comprehension strategy
(4) De Villers 1995
(5) Zipfian distributions in language


11/24/17 NO CLASS - Thanksgiving Break

Relax! :)
11/27/17 Development of Syntax III
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Reversible passives & semantic features
(2) Silent things
(3) Multiple potential silent subjects
(4) Silent subjects and objects
(5) Becker et al. 2012, 2015


11/29/17 Development of Syntax IV
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Pronoun types
(2) Children interpreting pronouns
(3) Quantifier scope with every-n't
(4) Quantifier scope with every-a
(5) Roeper & de Villiers 1991
(6) Children's quantifier interpretations
(7) Pragmatic factors and scope

12/1/17 Language & Cognition
Guest lecture: Travis
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Sentential complements and order of acquisition
(2) Indirect false belief tasks
(3) Parenthetical endorsements

HW5 due

HW6 available

Review questions available for language & cognition
12/4/17 Language Development in Special Populations I
Guest lecture: Galia
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Signers and categorical perception
(2) Pronoun reversal errors in ASL
(3) Cochlear implants and language development


Review questions available for language development in special populations

12/6/17 Language Development in Special Populations II
(pdf)

Podcasts
(1) Williams Syndrome and the Developmental Arrest Hypothesis
(2) Williams Syndrome vs. Down Syndrome


12/8/17 Final Exam Review
HW6 due

Come with questions to class
12/15/17 Final Exam
1:30pm-3:30pm
Locations available:
HSLH 100A
&
anywhere you have internet access
Make sure to have your coursebooks and notes available during the exam.