Högre seminarium: Morten Christiansen, Cornell University, USA/Aarhus University, Danmark

Seminarietitel: Language Acquisition as Skill Learning.

Seminarium

Datum:

måndag 22 september 2025

Tid:

15.00 – 17.00

Plats:

C307, Södra huset

Abstract (engelska):

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. 

Semniariet är på engelska.

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