Chapter published in:
Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, contexts, and learners
Edited by Maya Hickmann †, Edy Veneziano and Harriet Jisa
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 22] 2018
► pp. 201–218

New perspectives on input-output dynamics

Example from the emergence of the Noun category

| Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage, CNRS & Université Paris 8
| Department of Psychology, University of Groningen
This study addresses the role of input, i.e., child-directed speech, in child language acquisition. Proposing a dynamic approach of input-output relationships, we examine the development of noun determiners in the spontaneous production data of three monolingual children between one and three years old. Analyses show explosions in determiner use in the three children, although these vary in timing and amplitude. Such explosions are not found in the input, which rather presented striking fluctuations. Dynamic modeling (an extension of the Scaffolding Model) shows corresponding changes over time in child speech and child-directed speech, although the patterns are different across children. This argues for the idea of mutual influences between input and output, congruent with transactional adaptation models.
Keywords: adaptation, child-directed speech, dynamic modeling, early grammatical development, input-output relations, longitudinal data, noun determiners, scaffolding model
Published online: 22 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.22.11bas
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