Context-Dependent Learning of Linguistic Disjunction.
Masoud Jasbi, Akshay Jaggi, Eve V Clark and 1 others
PMID 36353801WHAT IT FOUND
Children hear few examples of or.
When parents use rise-fall intonation or alternatives that cannot both be true, or usually means exclusive. Without those cues, it often means both are possible.
Key findings
01After exclusions, the analysed corpus included 504 children and their parents; parents produced or 1.5 times per 1000 words, and children produced it 0.5 times per 1000 words.
02In annotated child-directed speech, or was most often exclusive at 62% of examples.
03A cue-based model classified inclusive disjunction better than a baseline model that ignored cues.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The studies analysed archived speech and a computational model, not children's actual learning in a controlled experiment. The model used labeled data and pre-selected cues, which children do not receive in the same way. The corpora were English-speaking samples, and the annotated set covered a limited number of connective examples. The authors did not test whether children use these cues to learn or.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that children learn or from these cues or that clinicians can teach it this way. The evidence comes from archived speech and a computational model, not from an experiment showing children use the cues.