Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure

509 Pages·2013·4.44 MB·English

by  Steven Pinker

Learnability and Cognition
Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change
Lila Gleitman, Susan Carey, Elissa Newport, and Elizabeth Spelke, editors
Names for Things: A Study in Human Learning , John Macnamara, 1982
Conceptual Change in Childhood , Susan Carey, 1985
“ Gavagai!” or the Future History of the Animal Language Controversy , David Premack, 1986
Systems That Learn: An Introduction to Learning Theory for Cognitive and Computer Scientists , Daniel
N. Osherson, 1986
From Simple Input to Complex Grammar , James L. Morgan, 1986
Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development , Frank C. Keil, 1989
Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure , Steven Pinker, 1989
Mind Bugs: The Origins of Procedural Misconception , Kurt VanLehn, 1989
Categorization and Naming in Children: Problems of Induction , Ellen M. Markman, 1989
The Organization of Learning , Charles R. Gallistel, 1990
The Child ’ s Theory of Mind , Henry M. Wellman, 1990
Understanding the Representational Mind , Josef Perner, 1991
An Odyssey in Learning and Perception , Eleanor J. Gibson, 1991
Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science , Annette Karmiloff-Smith,
1992
Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind , Simon Baron-Cohen, 1995
Speech: A Special Code , Alvin M. Liberman, 1996
Theory and Evidence: The Development of Scientifi c Reasoning , Barbara Koslowski, 1996
Race in the Making: Cognition, Culture, and the Child ’ s Construction of Human Kinds , Lawrence A.
Hirschfeld, 1996
Words, Thoughts, and Theories , Alison Gopnik and Andrew Meltzoff, 1997
The Cradle of Knowledge: Development of Perception in Infancy , Philip J. Kellman and Martha E.
Arberberry, 1998
Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization, Diachrony, and Development , Michel DeGraff,
editor, 1999
Systems that Learn: An Introduction to Learning Theory , second edition, S anjay Jain, Daniel Osh-
erson, James S. Royer, and Arun Sharma, 1999
How Children Learn the Meanings of Words , Paul Bloom, 2000
Making Space: The Development of Spatial Representation and Reasoning , Nora Newcombe and
Janellen Huttenlocher, 2000
The Algebraic Mind: Integrating Connectionism and Cognitive Science , Gary F. Marcus, 2000
Approaches to Studying World-Situated Language Use: Bridging the Language-as-Product and Language-
as-Action Traditions , John C. Trueswell and Michael K. Tanenhaus, editors, 2004
Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure , new edition, Steven Pinker, 2013
Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument
Structure
new edition
Steven Pinker
A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 1989, 2013 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
First edition published 1989 by The MIT Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pinker, Steven, 1954– .
Learnability and cognition : the acquisition of argument structure / Steven
Pinker.— New ed.
p. cm. — (Learning, development, and conceptual change)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-51840-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Language acquisition. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general. 3. Semantics.
4. Learning ability. 5. Child psychology. I. Title.
P118.P555 2013
401'.9— dc23
2012038058
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of Clara Daly Wiesenfeld (1902– 1988), who would have
tried to read this book

Contents
Series Foreword xi
The Secret Life of Verbs: A Preface to the New Edition xiii
Acknowledgments xix
1 A Learnability Paradox 1
1.1 Argument Structure and the Lexicon 4
1.2 The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition 5
1.3 Baker ’ s Paradox 8
1.4 Attempted Solutions to Baker’ s Paradox 10
2 Constraints on Lexical Rules 53
2.1 Morphological and Phonological Constraints 53
2.2 Semantic Constraints 56
2.3 How Semantic and Morphological Constraints Might Resolve Baker’ s
Paradox 60
2.4 Evidence for Criteria-Governed Productivity 61
2.5 Problems for the Criteria-Governed Productivity Theory 66
3 Constraints and the Nature of Argument Structure 73
3.1 Overview: Why Lexical Rules Carry Semantic Constraints 73
3.2 Constraints on Lexical Rules as Manifestations of More General
Phenomena 77
3.3 A Theory of Argument Structure 83
3.4 On Universality 110
4 Possible and Actual Forms 115
4.1 The Problem of Negative Exceptions 115
4.2 Transitive Action Verbs as Evidence for Narrow Subclasses 122
viii Contents
4.3 The Nature of Narrow Confl ation Classes 125
4.4 Defi ning and Motivating Subclasses of Verbs Licensing the Four
Alternations 128
4.5 The Relation between Narrow-Range and Broad-Range Rules 177
5 Representation 193
5.1 The Need for a Theory of Lexicosemantic Representation 193
5.2 Is a Theory of Lexical Semantics Feasible? 195
5.3 Evidence for a Semantic Subsystem Underlying Verb Meanings 198
5.4 A Cross-linguistic Inventory of Components of Verb Meaning 202
5.5 A Theory of the Representation of Grammatically Relevant Semantic
Structures 205
5.6 Explicit Representations of Lexical Rules and Lexicosemantic
Structures 245
5.7 Summary 288
6 Learning 291
6.1 Linking Rules 292
6.2 Lexical Semantic Structures 298
6.3 Broad Confl ation Classes (Thematic Cores) and Broad-Range Lexical
Rules 311
6.4 Narrow Confl ation Classes and Narrow-Range Lexical Rules 317
6.5 Summary of Learning Mechanisms 330
7 Development 333
7.1 Developmental Sequence for Argument Structure Alternations 334
7.2 The Unlearning Problem 342
7.3 Children’ s Argument Structure Changing Rules Are Always Semantically
Conditioned 349
7.4 Do Children’ s Errors Have the Same Cause as Adults’ ? 374
7.5 Acquisition of Verb Meaning and Errors in Argument Structure 383
7.6 Some Predictions about the Acquisition of Narrow-Range Rules 408
7.7 Summary of Development 412
8 Conclusions 415
8.1 A Brief Summary of the Resolution of the Paradox 415
8.2 Argument Structure as a Pointer between Syntactic Structure and
Propositions: A Brief Comparison with a “ Connectionist” Alternative 416
Contents ix
8.3 The Autonomy of Semantic Representation 420
8.4 Implications for the Semantic Bootstrapping Hypothesis 424
8.5 Conservatism, Listedness, and the Lexicon 429
8.6 Spatial Schemas and Abstract Thought 436
Notes 441
References 455
Index 475