Bootstrapping (linguistics)
Encyclopedia
In psycholinguistics
, bootstrapping refers to the question of how language acquisition
"gets started." A child gradually acquires a great deal of interlocking knowledge about the structure and vocabulary of his or her language. It has sometimes been proposed that some specific type of linguistic knowledge can be acquired early, and that this enables the child to analyze words or sentences well enough to acquire further knowledge from them. Metaphorically, this early knowledge would serve as bootstraps
by which the child pulls himself or herself up.
they have developed to help learn what words mean. That is, semantics builds on top of syntax. This idea was first tested experimentally by Lila Gleitman
(1991).
refers to the hypothesis that children utilize innately-known conceptual knowledge to create grammatical categories
when acquiring
their first language
. Thus, for example, categories like "type of object/person" maps directly onto the linguistic category "noun
", category like "action" onto "verb
", etc.
It is proposed that this will get children started on their way to acquiring parts of speech, which later can be supplemented by other linguistic information. The hypothesis has received some support from the experiments that showed that three- to five-year-olds do, in fact, generally use nouns for things and verbs for actions more often than adults do. However, it has also been proposed that children may learn word meaning by attending to the distributional patterns of words in their language (see the distributional hypothesis
), which does not require the category-word relation to be innately available.
Other theories such as cognitive linguistics
also hold that the semantic mappings lead to syntactic discovery, but claims that these are also learned, and that the grammar also has semantics.
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
, bootstrapping refers to the question of how language acquisition
Language acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with...
"gets started." A child gradually acquires a great deal of interlocking knowledge about the structure and vocabulary of his or her language. It has sometimes been proposed that some specific type of linguistic knowledge can be acquired early, and that this enables the child to analyze words or sentences well enough to acquire further knowledge from them. Metaphorically, this early knowledge would serve as bootstraps
Bootstrapping
Bootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning: a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help....
by which the child pulls himself or herself up.
Syntactic bootstrapping
Syntactic bootstrapping proposes that syntax comes that children use syntactic knowledgeLanguage acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with...
they have developed to help learn what words mean. That is, semantics builds on top of syntax. This idea was first tested experimentally by Lila Gleitman
Lila R. Gleitman
Lila Gleitman is a Professor Emerita of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an internationally-renowned expert on language acquisition and developmental psycholinguistics, focusing on children's learning of their first language. Gleitman received a B.A. in...
(1991).
Semantic bootstrapping
Semantic bootstrapping in linguisticsLinguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
refers to the hypothesis that children utilize innately-known conceptual knowledge to create grammatical categories
Grammatical category
A grammatical category is a semantic distinction which is reflected in a morphological paradigm. Grammatical categories can have one or more exponents. For instance, the feature [number] has the exponents [singular] and [plural] in English and many other languages...
when acquiring
Language acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with...
their first language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
. Thus, for example, categories like "type of object/person" maps directly onto the linguistic category "noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
", category like "action" onto "verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
", etc.
It is proposed that this will get children started on their way to acquiring parts of speech, which later can be supplemented by other linguistic information. The hypothesis has received some support from the experiments that showed that three- to five-year-olds do, in fact, generally use nouns for things and verbs for actions more often than adults do. However, it has also been proposed that children may learn word meaning by attending to the distributional patterns of words in their language (see the distributional hypothesis
Distributional hypothesis
The Distributional Hypothesis in linguistics is the theory that words that occur in the same contexts tend to have similar meanings. The underlying idea that "a word is characterized by the company it keeps" was popularized by Firth. The Distributional Hypothesis is the basis for Statistical...
), which does not require the category-word relation to be innately available.
Other theories such as cognitive linguistics
Cognitive linguistics
In linguistics, cognitive linguistics refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms...
also hold that the semantic mappings lead to syntactic discovery, but claims that these are also learned, and that the grammar also has semantics.