LSA.125 | Statistical Learning and Human Language Acquisition

Elissa L. Newport
MTWR 2:55-4:35 (June 27th-June 30th)
location: 32-124
course web site: http://lsa.dlp.mit.edu/Class/125

This course will examine recent research on statistical learning in human infants and adults, as well as nonhuman primates, with an interest in asking what role statistical learning might serve in a theory of language acquisition. We will cover statistical approaches to various aspects of language acquisition, from word segmentation to syntax; constraints on statistical learning that might correspond to constraints on languages; and statistical approaches to creolization and language change. A theme throughout will be how to accomplish two goals - to account for the learning of the details of particular languages, and also to account for nativist phenomena like creolization, critical periods for learning, and language universals. A central question for statistical approaches to acquisition is the degree to which these goals can be achieved with a single learning mechanism, or rather whether and where a statistical learning mechanism must be combined with a quite different type of (symbolic) mechanism to account for acquisition.