ketan agrawal

Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development.
Last modified on May 16, 2022

Notes

In this model, comprehension and production are two sides of the same coin.

Comprehension task

The model “chunks” the input utterance, incrementing the count of that chunk in the chunkatory.

chunkatory = dict()
# for each sentence...
# TODO: write the pseudocode for chunkify

chunks = chunkify(sentence) # uses running avg. of BTPs
for chunk in chunks:
    chunkatory[chunk] += 1

Production task

Given a “bag of words” derived from a child utterance, model has to figure out how to put it in the right order.

Of the longest chunks, select that with the highest BTP given the previous item.

# first phase: chunkify the input
bag_of_words_chunks = # ...
# second phase: pull out the chunks
output = ''
prev_item = '<start>'
bag_of_words = # { set, of, all, input, words }
while bag_of_words is not empty:
    output += get_highest_BTP_chunk(bag_of_words_chunks)

Link

[1]

Bibliography

[1]
S. M. McCauley and M. H. Christiansen, “Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development,” Psychological review, vol. 126, no. 1, pp. 1–51, 2019, doi: 10.1037/rev0000126.

Links to “Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development.”