Corpora in Language Acquisition Research: History, Methods, Perspectives (Trends in Language Acquisition Research, Volume 6)

266 Pages·2008·2.77 MB·English

by  Heike Behrens (Editor)

Corpora in Language Acquisition Research
Bernard J. Baars
Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA
Thomas C. Dalton
California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, CA
Trends in Language Acquisition Research
As the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Child
Language (IASCL), TiLAR presents thematic collective volumes on state-of-the-art
child language research carried out by IASCL members worldwide.
IASCL website: http://iascl.talkbank.org/
Series Editors
Annick De Houwer Steven Gillis
University of Antwerp University of Antwerp
[email protected] [email protected]
Advisory Board
Jean Berko Gleason Paul Fletcher
Boston University University College Cork
Ruth Berman Brian MacWhinney
Tel Aviv University Carnegie Mellon University
Philip Dale
University of New Mexico
Volume 6
Corpora in Language Acquisition Research. History, methods, perspectives
Edited by Heike Behrens
Corpora in Language
Acquisition Research
History, methods, perspectives
Edited by
Heike Behrens
University of Basel
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Corpora in language acquisition research : history, methods, perspectives / edited by
Heike Behrens.
p. cm. (Trends in Language Acquisition Research, issn 1569-0644 ; v. 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language acquisition--Research--Data processing. I. Behrens, Heike.
P118.C6738 2008
401'.93--dc22 2008002769
isbn 978 90 272 3476 6 (Hb; alk. paper)
© 2008 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
List of contributors vii
Preface i x
Corpora in language acquisition research: History, methods, perspectives x i
Heike Behrens
How big is big enough? Assessing the reliability of data from naturalistic samples 1
Caroline F. Rowland, Sarah L. Fletcher and Daniel Freudenthal
Core morphology in child directed speech: Crosslinguistic corpus analyses
of noun plurals 2 5
Dorit Ravid, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Bracha Nir-Sagiv, Katharina
Korecky-Kröll, Agnita Souman, Katja Rehfeldt, Sabine Laaha,
Johannes Bertl, Hans Basbøll and Steven Gillis
Learning the English auxiliary: A usage-based approach 6 1
Elena Lieven
Using corpora to examine discourse effects in syntax 9 9
Shanley Allen, Barbora Skarabela and Mary Hughes
Integration of multiple probabilistic cues in syntax acquisition 139
Padraic Monaghan and Morten H. Christiansen
Enriching CHILDES for morphosyntactic analysis 165
Brian MacWhinney
Exploiting corpora for language acquisition research 199
Katherine Demuth
References 207
Index 230

List of contributors
Shanley Allen
Boston University, USA
Hans Basbøll
University of Southern Denmark
Heike Behrens
University of Basel, Switzerland
Johannes Bertl
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Morten H. Christiansen
Cornell University, USA
Katherine Demuth
Brown University
Wolfgang U. Dressler
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Sarah L. Fletcher
University of Liverpool, UK
Daniel Freudenthal
University of Liverpool, UK
Steven Gillis
University of Antwerp, Belgium
Mary Hughes
Boston University, USA
Katharina Korecky-Kröll
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Sabine Laaha
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
 Corpora in Language, Acquisition Research
Elena Lieven
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, UK
Brian MacWhinney
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Padraic Monaghan
University of York, UK
Bracha Nir-Sagiv
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Dorit Ravid
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Katja Rehfeldt
University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Caroline F. Rowland
University of Liverpool, UK
Barbora Skarabela
University of Edinburgh, UK
Agnita Souman
University of Antwerp, Belgium
Preface
The present volume is the sixth in the series ‘Trends in Language Acquisition Research’
(TiLAR). As an official publication of the International Association for the Study of
Child Language (IASCL), the TiLAR Series publishes two volumes per three year pe-
riod in between IASCL congresses. All volumes in the IASCL-TiLAR Series are invited
edited volumes by IASCL members that are strongly thematic in nature and that present
cutting edge work which is likely to stimulate further research to the fullest extent.
Besides quality, diversity is also an important consideration in all the volumes and
in the series as a whole: diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches, diver-
sity in the languages studied, diversity in the geographical and academic backgrounds
of the contributors. After all, like the IASCL itself, the IASCL-TiLAR Series is there for
child language researchers from all over the world.
The five previous TiLAR volumes were on (1) bilingual acquisition, (2) sign lan-
guage acquisition, (3) language development beyond the early childhood years, (4) the
link between child language disorders and developmental theory, and (5) neurological
and behavioural approaches to the study of early language processing. We are delight-
ed to present the current volume on the use of corpora in language acquisition re-
search. We owe a lot of gratitude to the volume editor, Heike Behrens, for her willing-
ness to take on the task of preparing this sixth TiLAR volume, especially since it
coincided with taking up a new position.
The present volume is the last that we as General Editors will be presenting to the
IASCL community. For us, the job has come full circle. This will be the last TiLAR
volume we are responsible for. We find it particularly fitting, then, that this volume
deals with a subject with a long history indeed, while at the same time, it is a subject
that is of continued basic interest and importance in language acquisition studies:
What are the types of data we need to advance our insights into the acquisition proc-
ess? We are proud to have the latest thinking on this issue represented in the TiLAR
series so that child language researchers from all different backgrounds worldwide
have the opportunity to become acquainted with it or get to know it better.
Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all the previous
TiLAR volume editors for their invaluable work. Also, our thanks go to all the con-
tributors to the series. We also thank the TiLAR Advisory Board consisting of IASCL
past presidents Jean Berko Gleason, Ruth Berman, Philip Dale, Paul Fletcher and Bri-
an MacWhinney for being our much appreciated ‘sounding board’. Seline Benjamins
and Kees Vaes of John Benjamins Publishing Company have given us their continued
trust and support throughout. We appreciate this very much. Finally, we would like to