Constructions and their acquisition

What is it about?

Learning a language, and its subjacent grammatical constructions, involves the distributional analysis of the language stream and the contingent analysis of perceptual activity following general psychological principles of category learning as shown by prototype theory. Categories have graded structures, with some members being better exemplars than others. The prototype is the best example, the benchmark against which surrounding “poorer,” more borderline instances are categorized. The greater the token frequency of an exemplar, the more it contributes to defining the category and the greater the likelihood it will be considered the prototype

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Why is it important?

This study tested empirically if classical prototypical theory also applies to phrasal constructions containing verbs and whether learners would also learn general constructions with more frequent and more widely applicable verbs (like go, put, and give) earlier than less frequent and more specific constructions (like stroll, place, and lend), and if these phrasal structures would be at the core of the grammar of going (verb locative), putting (verb object locative), and gifting (verb object object).