1999/01/01 by Daniel Freudenthal, Julián M. Pine, Fernand Gobet +2 · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health #Language Development and Disorders #Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism #Reading and Literacy Development
paper · pdf · doi:10.1207/s15516709cog0000_47
openalex publication_date 1999/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
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.