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Word count 4183

Children as emergonaughts; first language acquisition of the

article system in English can be explained by emergent systems

/ complex adaptive systems theory.

1.1 Emergent systems theory, filler syllables and articles.

The present study posits that emergent systems theory

(Goldstein 1999), which seeks to explain complex phenomena in

nature (including language, the stock market and bird flocking

behavior) by analyzing the basic rules or constructs which

govern each system, can account for children’s acquisition of

the article system in English.

Goldstein defines emergence as: "...the arising of novel and coherent

structures, patterns and properties during the process of self-organization in

complex systems". (1999:49)

This modern theory of emergence has its roots in Aristotelian

philosophy, where the concept that the whole is greater than

the sum of its parts (Aristotle 1045) lends itself perfectly

to language, which is constantly subject to change,

syntactically, grammatically, phonologically and lexically, as

de Saussure (2002) points out in his Saussurian paradox, which

asks how we can ever learn a language which is constantly

changing.

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Children’s use of filler syllables such as [n] pre-nominally,

by children who have yet to be able to use the article system,

is a noted phenomena in applied linguistics (Peters 2001,

Pepinsky 2001). The present study aims to prove that emergent

systems theory is a robust framework for viewing children’s

journey to mastering the article system through the stages of

using filler syllables pre-nominally to an eventual

abandonment of filler syllables for a more adult like use of

articles.

1.2 Language acquisition; an overview.

The ability to acquire language has been a universal human

feat for approximately the last 100,000 years (Perrialt 2012),

a feat which seems only to be thwarted by incidences of

genetic defects (Gopnik 1994) or a lack of quality input

during the critical period (Curtiss 1998). Variations in

children’s’ intelligence or in the quality of their learning

environment (Ochs 1982) seem to play no significant role in

determining whether children learn a language successfully or

not. Many linguists have attempted to explain how the process

of first language acquisition (FLA) works.

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Among the many competing theories vying to account

for FLA, two theories have come to represent diametrically

opposed sides in the debate, namely the usage based account

and the nativist (or generative) account. A third, more recent

theory which draws on and develops the tenets of the usage

based account, is emergent systems theory. The present study

will assess these theories.

1.2 Filler syllables and the article system in English.

The hypothesis to be tested in the present study is that

children view language as an emergent system and as such, use

filler syllables before nouns as a proto-morphological device

to compensate for their lack of knowledge of the grammatical

rules for using the articles a and an and the determiner the.

Children’s use of filler syllables before nouns in the mean

length of utterance (MLU) range of 1.5 to 2.5, represent their

attempt to engage with the grammatical rules of English as an

emergent system, where a small number of simple rules (in this

case English grammar rules for use of articles) account for

the multifarious complexity of language as input which they

are exposed to through child directed speech (CDS) and from other

sources of linguistic input they encounter. In other words,

children are viewed in the present study, as emergonaughts,

actively seeking to fathom the complex system of adult

language by treating it as an emergent system which is based

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on a few simple rules by listening then making and testing

their own hypotheses on the rules of its grammar.

1.3 Explaining FLA; the usage based account

Tomasello (2003) proposed that:

“... grammar is seen as a dynamic system of conventionalized form-function units,

i.e. constructions, that children acquire based on domain-general learning

mechanisms such as analogy, entrenchment, and automatization. On this account,

syntactic categories are fluid entities that emerge from processing large amounts of

linguistic data.” Diessel (2012)

In other words, children are responsible for constructing

their own holo-phrases and fixed and semi-fixed expressions

based on their own distillation and combinations of language

items they are exposed to from CDS, media, other children and

non-CDS for example utterances overheard from adult-adult

conversations. Tomasello, in particular, views children as

infant scientists sifting through a corpus of language input to

construct hypotheses on the correct use of holophrastic or

lexical phrases designed to serve a communicative purpose

(2003).

1.4 FLA & the generative hypothesis

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On the other side of the debate on grammatical development in

FLA, the Chomskyian generative approach proposes some very

different theories to account for children’s’ development.

According to Chomsky:

“...children are born with a universal set of formal syntactic categories, to which

generative grammarians refer as ‘universal grammar (UG)’ or the ‘language faculty’

(cf. Pinker and Jackendoff 2005). What children have to learn in this approach is how

words and structures of the ambient language are related to elements of UG.”

Diessel (2012:1)

This view of grammatical development is supported from the

bedrock of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar (UG). This proposes

that children are naturally furnished with a language

acquisition device (LAD) which is primed to process language

in 3 distinct categories: syntax, phonology and semantics.

Each of these, according to Chomsky, can be analyzed

independently of the other. As Diessel explains of the

generative account:

“... syntactic representations are autonomous in the sense that they can be analyzed

without reference to meaning.” (2012:1)

Children, Chomsky (1972) argues, are born with an innate set

of grammatical categories and parameters which they gradually

map onto the language input they are exposed to. He argues

that learning is distinct from the process of language

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acquisition as learning is merely the process by which these

innate categories belonging to UG are mapped on to the

language learned by a child. As Meisel explains of generative

approach:

“If the core inventory of grammar is innate, a single linguistic ‘trigger’ in the input is

in principle sufficient to acquire a particular linguistic category.”(1994:2)

Skinner (1952) posits the role of reinforcement from those

providing CDS as the primary factor which shapes children’s'

emergent language. He argues:

“Verbal behavior always involves social reinforcement and

derives its characteristic properties from this fact”

(1952:299)

By this he means that children are rewarded for uttering

phrases or words which fit the conventions of the speech

community of which they are a part. This view has been widely

criticized as being too vague and simplistic in that it

doesn't adequately account for the role of the social

dimensions which always accompany any language interactions,

where those providing the CDS help to shape and reinforce the

child's utterances at the single word and two-word phase

(Tomasello 2000).

1.5 Criticisms of the behaviorist view of FLA.

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In a marked difference to the behaviorist's view of the role

of CDS in FLA, Tomasello (2000) proposes that children

actively construct their own phrases or word combinations,

based on the input from caregivers' CDS and other non- CDS

speech they encounter. Concrete linguistic expressions (i.e. I-wanna-

see) are learned by the child, who then processes and

catogorises this input, before using it in their own speech.

Elements of the CDS are creatively combined to produce

holophrastic and two-word utterances which differ from the

adult grammar and syntax of those providing the CDS. The

children’s' speech can be seen as an emergent system which

attempts to combine the items in its limited lexicon, to

produce meaningful utterances. These constructions and the

child’s role in creatively forming them is summed up

succinctly by Goldberg as "...a pairing of form and function

such that some aspect of the function is not strictly

predictable" (1999:199).

The result, Tomasello argues, is a series of utterances

organised around the limited stock of words and phrases the

child knows at any given point. Tomasello's view has the

benefit of empirical evidence on its side, which Skinner

(1952) is lacking. Tomasello cites evidence for his view of

first language acquisition in his 'Verb Island Hypothesis',

pivot schemas and data on word combinations used in

children’s' speech.

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2.1 FLA, emergent systems and complex adaptive systems (CAS)

theory

The present study aims to examine children’s acquisition of

the article system in English against emergent systems theory

to test how well it can account for the data found. Building

on Tomasellos’(2003) view of FLA, Harrison and Raimy describe

emergence as:

“...complexity at a global level that is not locally specified or only very weakly

so...there is also a ‘surprise’ factor when complex behavior is not what we expect,

given our (limited) knowledge of the underlying components.”(2006:71)

Language, according to Harrison, in the mind of a child is

represented in an abstract fashion. Harrison (2006)

attributes this fact to the existence of ‘language pattern

detectors’ in the brain which serve to sift through the huge

amount of speech input the child is exposed to and identify

patterns in the ‘chaos’ of an unintelligible language in

order to ‘map’ on to concepts and construct an abstract

representation of the grammar of their first language.

Recent studies that support this view (Saffran, Aslin, &

Newport, 1996; Saffran, Johnson, Aslin, & Newport, 1999;

Saffran & Wilson, 2003) provide evidence that both children

and adults track statistical patterns and collocations in

artificial grammars they are exposed to. This view shares a

great deal with the complex adaptive systems (CAS) view of

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language acquisition which views language as a living system

which is in constant flux and change rather than the

Chomskyian view “...which suggests that language is a largely innate static

abstraction uniformly present in the population” (Steels 2000). It

follows from this analysis therefore, that children learning

their first language are presented with an almost unlimited

myriad of complex and unintelligible raw speech input in the

form of child directed speech (CDS) (directed specifically

at them), utterances overheard from the conversations of

adults and other children and speech heard on TV or radio.

Children however, do not expect to have to learn to produce

all of this verbatim in order to learn how to speak their

first language; rather they seem to expect an emergent

system where a simple set of rules (a grammar) accounts for

all of the linguistic complexity they encounter.

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2.2 An outline of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory.

A CAS is defined by the Santa Fe Institute group thusly:

“(1) The system consists of multiple agents (the speakers in the speech

community) interacting with one another. (2) The system is adaptive, that is,

speakers’ behavior is based on their past interactions, and current and past

interactions together feed forward into future behavior. (3) A speaker’s

behavior is the consequence of competing factors ranging from perceptual

mechanics to social motivations. (4) The structures of language emerge from

interrelated patterns of experience, social interaction, and cognitive

processes.”(2008:2)

Relating this view of systems to FLA, the present study should

allow an examination of:

How the child interacts with other speakers in his/her

speech community; her caregivers when attempting to use

filler syllables or articles before nouns.

How she adapts to new spoken situations based on her past

experience of the use articles before nouns.

How she perceives the grammar rules relating to articles

in English.

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How the structure of the language she produces emerges

from the interplay of social interaction, CDS and her own

cognitive processes in regards to extrapolating the rules

for articles based on her own cognitive processing of the

CDS she is exposed to.

3.1 An analysis of the article system in English

In order to analyze children’s use of articles in FLA, we

first need to define and examine the English article system.

Firstly, there are the two indefinite articles a & an and the

definite article, the.

Articles are used before nouns to define and identify the

number (singular/plural), quality and definiteness of the noun

itself as set out below.

1. If the noun used refers to all of its particular kind and

is a non count or plural, no article is used.

i.e. Trees provide oxygen.

2. If a singular noun is the signifier for an invention or a

living organism, the is used.

i.e The computer has changed the world.

The macaque monkey can be found all over Asia.

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3. If the noun used is the signifier where one example

represents a whole group, a is used.

i.e A dog is friendlier than a cat.

4. If the noun refers to one of many and is a non-count or

plural, no article is used.

i.e. Coffee is grown in Columbia. Chickens are easy to look

after.

5. If the signifier refers to one specimen of a particular

class of nouns and it is singular, a is used if the first

pronounced syllable of the noun is a consonant.

i.e A car is useful. /c a: r/. The first sounded syllable is

the consonant /c/.

6. If the signifier refers to one specimen of a particular

class of nouns and it is singular, an is used if the first

pronounced syllable of the noun is a vowel.

i.e Have an apple. /ae ppl/. The first sounded syllable is the

vowel /ae/.

7. If the noun used is referring to one item which is obvious

(deitic) or known to the participants in a communicative act

and is non-count or plural, the is used, if singular, the is

used. In the case of proper nouns, either the or no article is

used. i.e The river Thames. Spain is in Europe.(no artIcle).

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4.1 Filler syllables and their relevance for the study of

FLA.

Filler syllables uttered by children before nouns have been

proposed by many linguists to be tokens which the child uses

to stand in for articles which they don’t yet know how to use

systematically or correctly. (Belicova 1989, Pepinsky 2001).

Filler syllables are pronounced as /n/ [n] showing syntactic

abstraction of the rule for using articles before nouns (A>N)

in English before articles are learned fully. Pepinsky’s

data(2001:578) shows that children use filler syllables most

often before nouns compared to other word classes. This is

significant as it suggests children at an MLU of +/- 1.5 are

using fillers as a proto-morphological device which

substitutes for the use of an article or determiner. Children

know ( from their experience of input of English through CDS

and other sources) that a determiner or article is needed

before a noun. They do not yet know which to choose (a,an,the)

so they insert a filler syllable as a ‘placeholder’ (Belicova

1989).

5.1 Assessing the efficacy of emergent systems theory to

account for children’s acquisition of the English article

system.

The present study will examine how children in the process of

FLA internalize the rules for the use of articles within

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in terms of the frequency of filler syllables used before

nouns over a 1 year period from a MLU of 1.5 to 2.5. The data

will be compared against emergent systems theory by analyzing

the emergent lexico-grammatical patterns in children’s

language from the CHILDES database, which allows children to

account for the almost infinite combinations of words into

phrases and semi-fixed expressions using only their finite

(and still immature) language processing faculties. By

analyzing both the frequency of the 3 types of articles (a, an

& the) in CDS and classifying the type and frequency of

children’s utterances before nouns, the present study will

attempt to chart any significant relationships between the

sets of data and assess to what extent emergent systems theory

can account for them.Data from the CHILDES database will be

used to show :

5.2 How adults’ CDS sensitizes children to the use of articles

before nouns.

5.3 How children respond to CDS by using filler syllables as

an abstract representation of articles in English as an

emergent system in their own speech between the two word stage

and the ‘telegraphic’ stage.

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6.1 Results

The data gathered on the present study falls into two groups:

1. Data from CHILDES analyzing a 1 year study of ‘Anna’s’

use of filler syllables, a, an & the, beginning with a

MLU of 1.5 to 2.5 from the Manchester corpus. (Figure 1).

2. Data from the same file analyzing totals of a, an & the

in the CDS Anna was exposed to over the same period.

(Table 2).

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Figure 1: A line graph showing the frequencies of Anna’s

use of a, an, the & filler syllables before nouns over a

1 year period.

The green section of the line chart above illustrates

that during the first 6 months of the study, Anna’s use of

filler syllables before nouns was much more evident in the

early stages of the data beginning with a MLU of 1.5 (between

recordings 1b to 8a) with a peak of 9 incidences recorded in

file 2b. The incidences of filler syllables before nouns then

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falls sharply to 1 incidence at 3b before fluctuating between

1,4 and 3 before hitting a peak of 7 incidences in 8a.

Thereafter, the incidences of filler syllables fall rapidly to

0 (9b) then vary between 1 and 0 until they disappear

altogether from 14a to 18b before a reoccurrence of 3

incidences at 19a before disappearing once more to 0 until the

last recorded incidence at 22b. The overall trend for Anna’s

use of filler syllables is falling to a low of 0 by the end of

the data set.

The red section of figure 1 shows the frequency of use of a,

which starts at 9 incidences in file 9a before falling to a

low of 1 in file 3a. It then fluctuates between 2 and 12 until

file 13a where it reaches a high of 15 before climbing further

to 29 incidences in file 14a before fluctuating between 25 and

9, until a peak of 38 incidences in file 20a is reached. This

fluctuates between 7 and 29 incidences in the last part of the

data set to file 27b. The overall trend is a rise in the use

of a as Anna’s MLU increases.

The blue section depicts the frequency of Anna’s use of the,

which begins with 1 incidence in file 1a before rising to 11

incidences in file 2a. This trend falls again before varying

between 0 and 8 incidences before reaching a high of 29

incidences in file 11a. This falls again rapidly to 5

incidences in file 12a before fluctuating between 26 and 10

incidences between files 14a and 17b. A peak of 33 incidences

is reached in 17b before falling to a consistent 8 incidences

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from files 19a to 27a. The overall trend of Anna’s use of the

is rising, beginning at an MLU of 1.5 before reaching a peak

in the middle of the data set then settling to a stable level

for the last 1/3 of the dataset.

The purple section depicting Anna’s use of an runs at a

constant 0 as there were no incidences of her using an

throughout the whole dataset.

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Table 1 above shows the cumulative totals of Anna’s exposure

to a an & the through CDS over the 1 year period matching the

period of analysis in figure 1. The highest incidence was of

the (n=81029) followed by a (n=56952) and lastly an (n=2714).

The data clearly shows that the is by far the most used

article while a is a close second. The cumulative total use of

an is minute, making up just 3.4% of the total for the.

6.2 Discussion of results and analysis of the efficacy of

emergent systems theory to account for them.

The results show that as Anna’s MLU increased over a 1 year

period from 1.5 to 2.5, her use of filler syllables decreased

as her use of a & the increased. This suggests that Anna is

replacing filler syllables with the articles a & the as she

increases her awareness of the article system in English. The

incidences of the articles in the CDS she is exposed to

suggest that she is taking account of their frequency of use

as evidenced by an having a minimal frequency of occurrence

in CDS (n=2714 or just 3.4% of that of the use of the), which

corresponds to the absence of an in Anna’s utterances over the

same 1 year period (0%). Meanwhile, the much higher frequency

of use of a (n=56952) and the (n=81029) in the CDS to Anna,

seem to suggest that this is reflected in the increasing

frequency and higher number of incidences of a & the before

nouns over the course of her progression from an MLU of 1.5 to19

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2.5 in the 12 month period. This data suggests that Anna is

tracking the statistical patterns evident in CDS by using her

language pattern detectors (Harrison 2006) to firstly identify that

an article is needed before a noun, secondly, by attempting to

imitate this article + verb pattern (evidenced by her use of

filler syllables preceding nouns) and finally, by her gradual

replacement of filler syllables for the most commonly used

articles experienced in CDS to her, a and the. Anna’s

understanding of language, based on the present study’s

analysis of her learning of the article system, seems not to

be a Chomskian static abstraction, but more an appreciation of

language as a living, emergent system. This finding is

supported by research by Hopper (1997) who argues that the

grammar and syntactic rules of a language emerge

diachronically, not as Chomsky argues, synchronically.

Emergent grammar theorists argue that language acquisition

develops through experience not through a pre-formed set of

internalised grammar rules in the mind of the child which are

consulted before they perform a speech act. The results of the

present study do suggest that Anna’s understanding of the

article system does in fact develop diachronically over the

year period from an MLU of 1.5 to 2.5.

The subject (Anna) uses filler syllables before nouns from an

MLU of 1.5 and gradually moves away from this strategy by

beginning to replace them with the two most frequent articles

she is exposed to in CDS; a & the. Her use of articles at this

stage is accurate and follows adult usage. The obvious

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omission of the article an in Anna’s CDS and her subsequent

non-use of an (figure 1) suggests that she is sensitive to

patterns in both the usage and non-usage of articles which she

mirrors in her own emerging speech.

To conclude, based on the findings of the present study,

emergent systems theory accounts for the diachronic

development of Anna’s understanding of the English article

system as there are clear linkages between her development of

first using, then abandoning filler syllables before nouns,

for a rule based article system which she infers

experientially from the patterns of article use she

experiences in CDS.

6.3 Limitations of the present study& proposals for further research.

The first major limitation of the present study is that its

empirical observation that a relationship appears to exist

between Anna’s use of filler syllables immediately before

nouns, is not necessarily evidence of Anna learning the

grammar rules relating to articles. Two other possibilities

are equally likely, firstly that Anna’s use of filler

syllables before nouns are outward linguistic artefacts of

hesitation on Anna’s part. Filler syllables such as [n] may

simply evidence that fact that she is still a basic user of

English, having a MLU of between 1.5 and 2.5. The second

possibility is that Anna is simply using filler syllables

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before nouns as a rhythmic device. She may use filler

syllables to simply add an extra syllable to her sentences, so

that her utterances more closely match the syllable count of

sentences encountered in CDS, without any explicit awareness

of the grammatical rules for using articles. Secondly, the

present study’s reliance on the relationship between the high

incidence of a & the in Anna’s CDS and her increasing use of a

& the in her utterances to argue that the first causes the

second. A relationship does exist, but to posit that a

correlation implies causation is tenuous (Holland 1986). Many

other variables which were not taken into account in the

present study could be partly or fully responsible for this.

Thirdly, the limited range of data employed sampled from

CHILDES which on CDS to one child and one child’s utterances

were analysed for use of articles and filler syllables before

nouns. This is far from representative and any future studies

would need to draw on a much wider data set from CHILDES in

order to obtain representative data on the phenomenon of

children’s’ use of filler syllables and acquisition of the

article system in English.

Lastly, the present study was primarily quantative, analysing

cumulative totals of use of articles in CDS and Anna’s own use

of filler syllables and articles before nouns. A qualitative

analysis of speech act interactions between Anna and her

parents would have provided a richer insight into the

processes of her acquisition of the article system and its

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relationship to emergent systems theory.

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Peters,A. (2001) ‘Filler Syllables: What Is Their Status In Emerging Grammar?’

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Saffran, Aslin, & Newport. (1996) Statistical learning by 8-month-old

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Tomasello, M (2003) Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of

Language Acquisition, Harvard University Press27

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Appendix A

Data from CHILDES (Manchester corpus, Anna) on the cumulative total uses of words in CDS to Anna.

124219 you81029 the59629 it56952 a51760 to50418 i48081 what43202 that41780 and34513 is33223 do28053 in25578 oh24774 on22443 this22355 that's21942 your20754 have20416 no19658 don't18122 he17881 there17794 one17202 are16529 of16107 right15938 know15702 it's15625 see15568 go15040 can14962 yeah14892 like14542 did14486 here13871 we

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13432 put13260 me12404 for12336 get12333 now12221 want12137 not12007 ok11896 with11882 all11584 she11495 was11492 what's11477 up11212 they11192 going10752 well10015 think9545 so9541 you're9376 just9256 good9202 look9026 at8967 uh8925 got8873 out8811 come8533 be8521 yes8494 okay8472 them8356 how7958 hmmm7671 where7504 but7454 some7441 then7359 her7305 i'm7150 if6899 down6767 little6677 my6639 why6446 when6362 about6183 him

30

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6108 uhh6085 he's6005 does5538 say5418 take5408 gonna5346 his5324 too5234 over5139 doing5134 back5115 i'll4968 would4909 very4905 because4833 there's4757 who4711 or4609 make4563 big4526 tell4508 off4346 didn't4255 let's4197 more4140 two4096 play3960 eat3920 can't3831 will3805 really3798 let3776 those3775 isn't3720 she's3658 were3632 had3622 time3620 they're3612 these3390 other3200 something3195 has3180 way3161 nice3154 said3126 another3126 where's

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3102 house3096 give3040 alright2968 wanna2960 doesn't2904 else2857 as2844 um2839 sit2782 could2743 boy2728 sure2714 an

124219 you81029 the59629 it56952 a51760 to50418 i48081 what43202 that41780 and34513 is33223 do28053 in25578 oh24774 on22443 this22355 that's21942 your20754 have20416 no19658 don't18122 he17881 there17794 one17202 are16529 of16107 right15938 know15702 it's15625 see15568 go15040 can14962 yeah14892 like

32

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14542 did14486 here13871 we13432 put13260 me12404 for12336 get12333 now12221 want12137 not12007 ok11896 with11882 all11584 she11495 was11492 what's11477 up11212 they11192 going10752 well10015 think9545 so9541 you're9376 just9256 good9202 look9026 at8967 uh8925 got8873 out8811 come8533 be8521 yes8494 okay8472 them8356 how7958 hmmm7671 where7504 but7454 some7441 then7359 her7305 i'm7150 if6899 down6767 little6677 my6639 why

33

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6446 when6362 about6183 him6108 uhh6085 he's6005 does5538 say5418 take5408 gonna5346 his5324 too5234 over5139 doing5134 back5115 i'll4968 would4909 very4905 because4833 there's4757 who4711 or4609 make4563 big4526 tell4508 off4346 didn't4255 let's4197 more4140 two4096 play3960 eat3920 can't3831 will3805 really3798 let3776 those3775 isn't3720 she's3658 were3632 had3622 time3620 they're3612 these3390 other3200 something3195 has3180 way3161 nice

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3154 said3126 another3126 where's3102 house3096 give3040 alright2968 wanna2960 doesn't2904 else2857 as2844 um2839 sit2782 could2743 boy2728 sure2714 an

35