Recursion in Development: Support for a Biological Model of Language | Zendy

Sandra Dickinson | Zendy

AI Assistant Blog Pricing

Home ZAIA Blog

Open Access

Recursion in Development: Support for a Biological Model of Language

Author(s) -

Sandra Dickinson

Publication year - 1987

Publication title -

language and speech

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.713

H-Index - 52

eISSN - 1756-6053

pISSN - 0023-8309

DOI - 10.1177/002383098703000304

Subject(s) - recursion (computer science) , variety (cybernetics) , paraphrase , intonation (linguistics) , linguistics , language acquisition , language development , phrase , restructuring , cognition , psychology , computer science , ambiguity , developmental psychology , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , philosophy , finance , neuroscience , economics , algorithm

Recursion in adult language contributes to variety of surface form, paraphrase, and ambiguity. Developing recursion in child language reveals these characteristics. This paper, based on the naturalistic observation of phrase structure development in the speech of six monolingual preschoolers, reveals a gradual acquisition of grammatical categories. The data further demonstrate links between developmental stages in terms of connectors used and in terms of intonation. The results of my investigation suggest that children restructure utterances (rather than acquire entirely new ones) as stages develop. The data also suggest that in order to carry out this restructuring, children make use of auditory memory and problem solving abilities. I conclude that my observations of children's developing recursion can best be accounted for by a biological, cognitive-linguistic model.

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.

Having issues? You can contact us here

Accelerating Research