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Child-directed speech is optimized for syntax-free semantic inference

Type of publication Peer-reviewed
Publikationsform Original article (peer-reviewed)
Author You Guanghao, Bickel Balthasar, Daum Moritz M., Stoll Sabine,
Project The role of causality in early verb learning: language-specific factors vs. universal strategies
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Original article (peer-reviewed)

Journal Scientific Reports
Volume (Issue) 11(1)
Page(s) 16527 - 16527
Title of proceedings Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-021-95392-x

Open Access

URL http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95392-x
Type of Open Access Publisher (Gold Open Access)

Abstract

AbstractThe way infants learn language is a highly complex adaptive behavior. This behavior chiefly relies on the ability to extract information from the speech they hear and combine it with information from the external environment. Most theories assume that this ability critically hinges on the recognition of at least some syntactic structure. Here, we show that child-directed speech allows for semantic inference without relying on explicit structural information. We simulate the process of semantic inference with machine learning applied to large text collections of two different types of speech, child-directed speech versus adult-directed speech. Taking the core meaning of causality as a test case, we find that in child-directed speech causal meaning can be successfully inferred from simple co-occurrences of neighboring words. By contrast, semantic inference in adult-directed speech fundamentally requires additional access to syntactic structure. These results suggest that child-directed speech is ideally shaped for a learner who has not yet mastered syntactic structure.
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