pragmatic bootstrapping

Tue Mar 22 17:08:28 UTC 2011

It is pretty simple---if language is an autonomous system--we can form
non-sense sentences---and
possibly worlds.  All of creativity involves imagining and distorting how
things are--going against
context and reality----sometimes in a possible world, or may be an
impossible one.
    this is what Jabberwocky showed about a century ago.  It is the moment
of liberation from context
that we have to capture.

Tom

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 12:29 PM, suse <sgrass at gmx.net> wrote:

>   i wouldn't eve have thought that "anti-pragmatic ability is the sign of
> true acquisition"...
>
> Does that mean that one fully acquired language only when one is able to
> use it inappropriately?
> If this is what is meant, then i wonder how humankind was able to maintain
> the ability to communicate linguistically. Or does the above statement mean
> that true acquisition relates to the ability to understand sentences which
> make no or little sense in our world (but may be true in other worlds in
> which mice get eaten by cheese rather than the other way round and in which
> Chomsky is an advocate of pragmatic bootstrapping?)
>
> regards,
> Suse
>
>
>
> Am 22-03-11 17:03, schrieb Tom Roeper:
>
> Sorry---you know I was typing fast, and it is 1976---but I guess if we went
> back to Panini, one
> could probably find the idea earlier.
>
> Tom
>
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Matthew Saxton <M.Saxton at ioe.ac.uk>wrote:
>
>>  > ...... *embedded in Chomsky's remark in 1076 ......*
>>
>>
>>
>> I realise Chomsky has been around for some time, but who’d’ve though it?
>> He precedes the invention of the printing press......
>>
>>
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>>
>>
>> Matthew Saxton.
>>
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>> *********************************************************************************************************
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>>
>> Saxton Academic Homepage <http://www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/PHDT/PHDT_71.html>
>>
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>> *From:* info-childes at googlegroups.com [mailto:
>> info-childes at googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Tom Roeper
>> *Sent:* 22 March 2011 12:37
>> *To:* info-childes at googlegroups.com
>> *Subject:* Re: pragmatic bootstrapping
>>
>>
>>
>> Anat---
>>     in the paper I wrote in 1981 for the Wanner Gleitman volume, I argued
>> that children needed pragmatic
>> mapping onto syntax to justify transformations.  That means a simultaneous
>> syntactic and pragmatic
>> information.  It is in my book as well---and actually embedded in
>> Chomsky's remark in 1076 Reflections
>> on Language, that acqusition must be consistent with "trigtering
>> experience" I said to him that must include
>> pragmatics and he agreed.
>>    It is obvious that it is hard to understand:
>>        the cat was chased by the dog.
>> but the chld has a big semantic.pragmatic  advantage when they hear:
>>
>> the milk was drunk by the boy
>>
>> because they know that milk cannot drink boy.  If there is syntax is ready
>> to project a transformation,
>> then they use that information and visual support to say "milk has to get
>> into the object position somehow,
>> do I have a mental operation to do it".
>>       Once acquired, it will be autonomous and apply without pragmatics,
>> so if I tell a 3yr old:
>>
>>       the cheese ate the mouse
>>
>> they laugh, because they know, anti-pragmatically, that it is true.  An
>> anti-pragmatic ability is the
>> sign of true acquisition.
>>
>> best, Tom  Roeper
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 6:17 PM, parisa Daftarifard <
>> pdaftaryfard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Anat,
>>
>>
>>
>> Very interesting topic.....I am not sure but lack of language development
>> or language development delay can occur because of problems in pragmatic
>> bootstrapping in some children. Kids with low possibility of being involved
>> in interaction-- when mothers or fathers are busy or when kids live in a
>> poor-interaction environment-- showed to have language delay. This is
>> especially interesting when we consider that TVs are always on and they can
>> get enough input in a unilateral way.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best.
>>
>> Parisa Daftarifard
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 7:37 AM, Anat Ninio <
>> msninio at pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il> wrote:
>>
>> Dear List,
>>
>> Sorry to have sent this to the whole list by mistake, but actually I'd
>> love to hear from anybody who knows of studies that can be said to test the
>> hypothesis that children learn syntax by "pragmatic bootstrapping".
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Anat Ninio
>>
>>
>> On 17-03-11 06:01, Anat Ninio wrote:
>>
>> Hi Nameera,
>>
>> Thanks a lot!  Absolutely coincidentally this very minute I'm reading your
>> 2008 (or is it 2009?) encyclopedia entry
>>
>> Akhtar, N., & Herold, K. (2008). Pragmatic development. In M. M. Haith &
>> J. B. Benson (Eds.), *Encyclopedia of infant and early childhood
>> development,* Vol. *2* (pp. 572-581). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
>>
>> which I want to cite for a research proposal for an European grant. First,
>> is it 2008 or 2009? Second, you say
>>
>> "We know of no empirical research, however, that has directly addressed
>> the question of whether children learn syntactic constructions in the same
>> way as they learn words; that is,  through "pragmatic bootstrapping" or
>> attention to speakers' intentions." (p.319)
>>
>> Would you still say so? Or is there some new study that you know of that I
>> should mention? Any newer publication of yours on this point?
>>
>> Thanks a lot and see you in SRCD for sure,
>>
>> Anat
>>
>>
>> On 17-03-11 05:14, nameera akhtar wrote:
>>
>> congratulations, anat!
>>
>> hope to see you at srcd,
>>
>> nameera
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Anat Ninio <
>> msninio at pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
>>
>> I'm very happy to be able to announce the publication of my new book by
>> Oxford University Press.  It is entitled   "Syntactic development, its
>> input and output" and a description of it, as well as a link to the
>> Introduction, can be found on the publisher's on-line catalogue at
>> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199565962.do
>>
>> I hope you'll like it!
>>
>> Anat Ninio
>>
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>> --
>>
>> Parisa Daftarifard
>>
>> Phd Student of TEFL
>>
>> Islamic Azad University of Science and Research
>>
>>
>>
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>> --
>> Tom Roeper
>> Dept of Lingiustics
>> UMass South College
>> Amherst, Mass. 01003 ISA
>> 413 256 0390 <413%20256%200390>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Tom Roeper
> Dept of Lingiustics
> UMass South College
> Amherst, Mass. 01003 ISA
> 413 256 0390
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-- 
Tom Roeper
Dept of Lingiustics
UMass South College
Amherst, Mass. 01003 ISA
413 256 0390

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