Research seminar: Morten Christiansen, Cornell University, USA/Aarhus University, Denmark

Title: Language Acquisition as Skill Learning.

Seminar

Date:

Monday 22 September 2025

Time:

15.00 – 17.00

Location:

C307, Södra huset

Abstract:

Language acquisition is often viewed as a problem of inference, in which children – like ”mini-linguists” – tries to piece together the abstract grammar of their native language from incomplete and noisy input.

This ”language-as-knowledge” viewpoint contrasts with a more recent alternative, in which the challenge of language acquisition is practical, not theoretical: by practicing across myriads of social interactions, children gradually learn to understand and produce language.

In this talk, I explore some key implications of this ”language-as-skill” framework, focusing on the need to deal with the immense challenge posed by the combined effects of rapid input, short-lived sensory memory, and severely limited sequence memory.

To illustrate, I present results from computational modeling, psycholinguistic experiments, and analyses of large language models, highlighting the key role of multiword chunks in explaining our language abilities and prompting a reappraisal of how grammatical regularities may be represented.

I conclude that language acquisition and use may be best construed as learning and deploying a sophisticated linguistic skill, on a par with learning other complex human skills such as riding a bicycle or playing a musical instrument. 

The seminar is held in English.

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