Language Acquisition
Code: 100196 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Catalan Philology: Literary Studies and Linguistics | OT | 4 |
| Spanish Language and Literature | OT | 3 |
| Spanish Language and Literature | OT | 4 |
| English Studies | OT | 3 |
| English Studies | OT | 4 |
| English and Catalan Studies | OT | 3 |
| English and Catalan Studies | OT | 4 |
| English and Spanish Studies | OT | 3 |
| English and Spanish Studies | OT | 4 |
| Catalan and Spanish Studies | OT | 3 |
| Catalan and Spanish Studies | OT | 4 |
| English and French Studies | OT | 0 |
| English and French Studies | OT | 3 |
| English and French Studies | OT | 4 |
| English and Classics Studies | OT | 3 |
| English and Classics Studies | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Elena Pagliarini
- Email:
- elena.pagliarini@uab.cat
Teachers
- Anna Gavarro Alguero
- Elena Pagliarini
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
A background in linguistics and knowledge of English to read the literature are necessary to follow the course.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The aim of this course is to introduce the student to an empirical field of linguistics: language acquisition.
We will consider language acquisition in both typical and pathological cases. By the end of the course, the student should be able to undertake original research in the field.
Competences
- Catalan Philology: Literary Studies and Linguistics
- Critically apply the different instruments of analysis to different types of linguistic data.
- Demonstrate a mastery of the rules of the Catalan language, its linguistic bases and all its application in the academic and professional fields.
- Identify the foundations of human language and the principles, methods and results of structural analysis of languages.
- Produce written work and oral presentations that are effective and framed in the appropriate register.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Spanish Language and Literature
- Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
- Demonstrate the ability to work autonomously and in teams in order to achieve the planned objectives in multicultural and interdisciplinary contexts.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Typologically identify the main phenomena of the Spanish language and relate them to similar phenomena in other languages.
- English Studies
- Develop arguments applicable to the fields of literature, culture and linguistics and evaluate their academic relevance.
- Distinguish and contrast the distinct paradigms and methodologies applied to the study of English.
- Produce effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in distinct languages (except English).
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- English and Catalan Studies
- Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
- Critically apply the different instruments of analysis to different types of linguistic data.
- Identify the foundations of human language and the principles, methods and results of structural analysis of languages.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- English and Spanish Studies
- Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
- Identify the foundations of human language and the principles, methods and results of structural analysis of languages.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Catalan and Spanish Studies
- Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
- Critically apply different analytical instruments to different types of linguistic data, whether in synchronic or diachronic.
- Identify the foundations of human language and the principles, methods and results of structural analysis of languages.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- English and French Studies
- Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
- Identify the foundations of human language and the principles, methods and results of structural analysis of languages.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- English and Classics Studies
- Identify the foundations of human language, the principles, methods and results of the structural analysis of languages.
- Produce effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in distinct languages.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
Learning Outcomes
- Accurately drawing up normative texts.
- Appropriately use the different available formal and technical resources.
- Construct normatively correct texts.
- Identify different theoretical options or ways of approaching the same problems from alternative theoretical frameworks.
- Identify different theoretical options or ways to address the same problems from alternative theoretical frameworks.
- Identify main and secondary ideas and express them with linguistic correctness.
- Identify principal and secondary ideas and express them using correct language.
- Identify the main and secondary ideas and express them with linguistic correctness.
- Identifying different theoretical options or ways of dealing with the same problem from alternative theoretical frameworks.
- Identifying main and supporting ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
- Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
- Produce normatively correct written and oral texts.
- Recognise different systems of natural language processing on the basis of their possible applications and development principles.
- Recognising different processing systems of the natural language according to their possible applications and development principles.
- Resolving problems independently.
- Solve problems autonomously.
- Solve problems self-sufficiently.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Use and interpret texts of an interdisciplinary nature on the connections between linguistics and other disciplines.
- Use and interpret texts of interdisciplinary nature about the connections between linguistics and other disciplines.
Content
1. Introduction.
1.1 Language as a defining characteristic of the species. Plato's problem. An extreme case of poverty of stimulus: creoles.
2. The acquisition of morphosyntax in typically developing children
2.1. General features of language acquisition.
2.2.First syntactic productions.
2.3. Phenomena of apparent optionality: optional infinitives and optional production of third person clitics. A note on DLD.
2.4. The acquisition of syntax. Passives. Related structures.
3. The acquisition of the lexicon
3.1. Phonological bootstrapping
3.2. The acquisition of meaning: Nouns vs. Verbs
3.3. Biases in lexical learning.
4. The acquisition of logical words and pragmatics
4.1. Implicatures
4.2. Quantifiers
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Discussion of the literature | 45 | 1.8 | 7, 11, 8, 10, 6, 5, 9 |
| Master lectures | 10 | 0.4 | 2, 20, 19, 4, 5, 9, 14, 13 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Problem resolution and preparation of written work | 43.5 | 1.74 | 1, 3, 4, 18, 15, 16, 17 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading | 30 | 1.2 | 2, 20, 19, 4, 5, 9, 14, 13 |
The methodology used will be based on problem resolution.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral test | 30% | 10 | 0.4 | 1, 3, 2, 20, 19, 11, 8, 7, 6, 10, 5, 4, 9, 12, 14, 13 |
| Original analysis | 30% | 10 | 0.4 | 2, 20, 19, 5, 17, 18, 16, 15 |
| Written test | 40% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 4, 5, 9, 18, 16, 15, 17 |
The evaluation will consist in three items: (i) an oral test, (ii) an original piece of research, and (iii) a written exam at the end of the course.
Item (iii) is a prerequisite to be reevaluated. Neither (i) nor (ii) will be subject to reevaluation. No use of AI is contemplated in the elaboration of the exercises.
Furthermore, and following the faculty's policy, to be reevaluated the final mark should be between 3.5 and 4.9, and the mark obtained after reevaluation cannot be higher than 5. The lecturer will inform the students of the terms and time of revision. Plagirism and copying in an exam will imply a zero of the item under evaluation; several irregularities of this kind will imply a zero for the whole course. Students will be 'No Avaluables' if they have not been evaluated for item (iii).
Non continous evaluation - Non-continuous evaluation will consist in the same three items of the continuous evaluation, only following a calendar that will be published in due time.
Bibliography
Aravind, A., De Villiers, J., de Villiers, P. A., Lonigan, C. J., Phillips, B. M., Clancy, J., ... & Valiente, C. (2017). Children’s quantification with every over time. Glossa, 10(X), 1.
Arosio, F., Pagliarini, E., Perugini, M., Barbieri, L., & Guasti, M. T. (2016). Morphosyntax and logical abilities in Italian poor readers: The problem of SLI under-identification. First Language, 36(3), 295-315.
Arosio, F., Foppolo, F., Pagliarini, E., Perugini, M., & Guasti, M. T. (2017). Semantic and pragmatic abilities can be spared in Italian children with SLI. Language Learning and Development, 13(4), 418-429.
Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2012). At 6–9 months, human infants know the meanings of many common nouns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(9), 3253-3258.
Gavarró, Anna, Maya Leela, Luigi Rizzi & Julie Franck (2015). Knowledge of the OV parameter setting at 19months: Evidence from Hindi-Urdu. Lingua, 154: 27-34.
Gavarró, Anna, Vicenç Torrens & Ken Wexler (2010) Object clitic omission: two language types. Language Acquisition 17(4): 192-219.
Gervain, J., Nespor, M., Mazuka, R., Horie, R., & Mehler, J. (2008). Bootstrapping word order in prelexical infants : A Japanese – Italian cross-linguistic study. Cognitive Psychology, 57, 56–74.
Guasti, M. Teresa (2017). Language Acquisition. The Growth of Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press. Second edition.
Halberda, J. (2003). The development of a word-learning strategy. Cognition, 87(1).
Katsos, N., Cummins, C., Ezeizabarrena, M. J., Gavarró, A., Kuvač Kraljević, J., Hrzica, G., ... & Noveck, I. (2016). Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(33), 9244-9249.
Levi,Yonata & Jeannette Schaeffer (eds.) (2002). Language Competence Across Populations. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Noveck, I. A. (2001). When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations of scalar implicature. Cognition, 78(2), 165-188.
Pagliarini, E., Bill, C., Romoli, J., Tieu, L., & Crain, S. (2018). On children’s variable success with scalar inferences: Insights from disjunction in the scope of a universal quantifier. Cognition, 178, 178-192.
Skordos, D., Myers, A., & Barner, D. (2022).Quantifier spreading and the question under discussion. Cognition, 226, 105059.
Stiller, A. J., Goodman, N. D., & Frank, M. C. (2015). Ad-hoc implicature in preschool children. Language learning and development, 11(2), 176-190.
De Villiers, Jill, & Tom Roeper (eds.) (2011). Handbook of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition. Berlin: Springer.
Software
Child Language Data Exchange System http://childes.psy.cmu.edu
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |