Elicitation

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Elicitation
Sonja Eisenbeiss (University of
Essex) seisen_at_essex.ac.uk
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Overview

• naturalistic, experimental, elicited data
• types of elicitation tasks and stimuli
• an example construction-specific elicitation
  games for NPs
• a generalised elicitation task
• an example eliciting sentences with more than
  two NPs in German and Japanese
• outlook

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Naturalistic Data

• other term spontaneous speech data
• recording of ongoing communicative events (free
  play, dinner table conversation,)

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Advantages

• age-independent
• no special task-demands
• frequency information available
• input-analysis possible
• analysable for different phenomena

5
Problems

• low comparability
• lack of data for low-frequency phenomena
  (morphemes, constructions,)
• underestimation of productivity due to recurrent
  situations which require similar linguistic
  encoding

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Production Experiments

• Nonce-word tests (Berko 1958)
• This is a wug. These are two
• Description of scenes which are acted out by the
  researcher

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Advantages

• high comparability
• data for low-frequency phenomena (morphemes,
  constructions,)
• no underestimation of productivity due to
  recurrent situations which require similar
  linguistic encoding

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Problems

• age-dependent (usually at least 3 years)
• underestimation of productivity due to
  comparatively high task-demands
• no frequency information available
• no input-analysis possible
• analysis restricted to target phenomenon

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Elicitation Games

• creation of contexts for constructions,
  morphemes, etc. in a game-like setting
• e.g. eliciting complete sentences with the verb
  to give in an "animal feeding game" participants
  have to feed toy animals and explain which food
  items they would like to give to which animals
  (Eisenbeiss 1994)
• mostly used with children that are too young for
  experiments or as supplements to
  (quasi-)naturalistic data or experiments

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Advantages

• usable with two-year olds
• high comparability
• data for low-frequency phenomena (morphemes,
  constructions,)
• no underestimation of productivity due to
  recurrent situations which require similar
  linguistic encoding
• no underestimation of productivity due to high
  task demands
• analysable for different phenomena

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Problems

• age-dependent (usually at least 16 years)
• no frequency information available
• no input-analysis possible

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Types of Elicitation Tasks and Stimuli

• Interactional Setting
• Target Type
• Stimulus Format

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Interactional Setting

• Director/matcherA director describes a
  scene/object etc. and a matcher who is not able
  to see this scene/object, has to recreate
  it.E.g. The matcher has to build a toy house
  identical to the one created by the director who
  is hidden behind a screen.
• Speaker/Listener A speaker provides information
  for someone who does not have access to this
  information. E.g. The speaker retells a story
  (s)he heard/read while the listener was not in
  the room.
• Co-PlayersAll participants are involved in a
  game and provide each other with information to
  co-ordinate their actions. E.g. The players are
  involved in a construction or puzzle game where
  not everyone has access to all pieces.

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Target Type

• the use of a particular form or construction
• the linguistic encoding of a particular function
  or meaning (which can be encoded in different
  ways)

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Stimulus Format

• pictures
• photos
• computer animations
• videos
• toys
• real objects

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Pictures

• better for descriptions of static
  objects/properties than for event descriptions
  and verb elicitation
• requires knowledge of artistic conventions (e.g.
  lines for movement, shading etc.)
• can be used for unrealistic events (e.g.
  animals in different colours or positions)
• comparatively easy to create with clip art and
  standard software
• comparatively easy to modify for minimal
  variations (e.g. colour)

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Photos

• better for descriptions of static
  objects/properties than for event descriptions
  and verb elicitation
• do not require knowledge of artistic conventions
  and are comparatively natural
• problematic for unrealistic events (e.g.
  animals in different colours or positions)
• comparatively easy to create and manipulate with
  standard photo equipment and Photoshop or similar
  software
• cannot be as easily modified for minimal
  variations (e.g. colour) as pictures, but
  possible in principle

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Computer Animations

• better for descriptions of dynamic events and
  verb elicitation than for descriptions of static
  objects/properties
• not very naturalistic, in particular when it
  comes to natural movements of people and animals
• can be used for unrealistic events (e.g. funny
  movements of animals)
• difficult and time-consuming to create
• good control for minimal variations (e.g.
  direction or manner of motion)

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Videos

• better for descriptions of dynamic events and
  verb elicitation than for descriptions of static
  objects/properties
• comparatively natural
• cannot easily be used for unrealistic events
• comparatively simple to create with standard
  digital video equipment and editing software
  (Adobe etc.)
• cannot be as easily modified for minimal
  variations as computer animations (e.g. direction
  or manner of motion) because actors tend to
  introduce unwanted modifications

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Toys

• e.g. stuffed animals, cars, blocks
• appropriate for descriptions of dynamic events
  and verb elicitation as well as for descriptions
  of static objects/properties
• not completely naturalistic, in particular when
  it comes to natural movements of people and
  animals
• often very culture-dependent
• can be used for unrealistic events (e.g. funny
  movements of animals)
• usually easily obtainable
• object properties can be fairly well controlled,
  but for dynamic events, actions of toy actors
  tend to introduce unwanted modifications

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Real Objects

• e.g. tools, household items like pots, dishes
• appropriate for descriptions of dynamic events
  and verb elicitation as well as for descriptions
  of static objects/properties
• very naturalistic
• basic objects are often less culture-dependent
  than toys
• can be used for realistic and unrealistic
  events (e.g. funny movements of pots)
• usually easily obtainable
• object properties are a bit harder to control
  than for toys and modifications might reduce
  naturalness (e.g. atypical colours for household
  items)
• for dynamic events, manipulations of the objects
  tend to introduce unwanted modifications

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Construction-specific Elicitation Games for
German NPs (Eisenbeiss 1994, 2002)
(Clahsen 1982, Wagner 1985, Clahsen et al. 1990)
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NPs in Spontaneous Speech (Eisenbeiss 2002)
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Problems for Naturalistic Corpus Studies on NPs

• Some NP types are comparatively frequent and
  become more frequent with increasing utterance
  length (MLU).
• BUT Some NP types (e.g. those with contexts for
  adjectivearticle or possessive s)
• are rare
• occur in some files, but not in others
• do not become more frequent over time (though
  childrens utterances get longer)

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NPs with NOM/ACC/DAT-Articles

• For instance
• clown game putting clothes on a clownWhat is
  this ? This is ... (NOM).What does the clown put
  on now? He puts on ... (ACC)
• feeding game Which food (ACC) do you give to
  which animal (DAT) ?

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NPs with NOM/ACC/DAT-Articles
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NPs with AdjectiveArticle

• For instance
• picture-matching game putting picture cards on
  a board with pictures (red balloon, blue
  ballon,...)
• What is this ? This is ... (NOM).What goes onto
  this picture here? (NOM)What do you want to put
  here (ACC)

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NPs with AdjectiveArticle
of analysable utterances
child
black symbols files with elicitation
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NPs with possessive -s

• For instance
• possession-matching game assigning possessions
  (depicted on cards) to people (depicted on
  board)Whose bicycle is this? This is ...

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NPs with possessive -s
child
of analysable utterances
black symbols files with elicitation
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Preliminary Summary

• Elicitation Games are effective tools for
• the collection of corpora that
• provide data for quantitative analyses of
  low-frequency phenomena
• can be analysed with respect to other phenomena
  as well

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BUT

• We have to
• enhance the effectiveness and naturalness of
  elicitation games
• create more flexible games that can be adapted to
  a variety of constructions in a variety of
  languages

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Desired Task Properties

• a natural communicative situation in which the
  speaker provides relevant information for the
  researcher or a third party
• motivating speakers to continue (e.g. by
  involving an inherent endpoint)
• appropriate for different cultures and ages
• easily transportable and low sound emission
• usable for
• Ns or Vs
• NPs or sentences
• variable but comparable for longitudinal work

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The Puzzle Task

• a task with co-players child describes
  contrasting pictures on a puzzle board, adult
  finds the matching pieces, child puts them into
  the correct cut-out
• exchangable pictures and puzzle pieces
• can be used to elictit particular forms or to
  elicit the linguistic encoding of particular
  meanings

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Studies of Argument Structure and Argument Marking

• Constructions with more than 2 arguments(e.g.
  dative constructions)
• Optional arguments (e.g. subject drop in
  Japanese)
• Optional grammatical markers (e.g. optional case
  markers in Japanese)
• extra arguments(e.g. external possession in
  German)

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External Possession in German

• The Possessor can be realized as
• a dative argument of the verb (preferred)
• Ich habe dem Bären die Pfote gewaschen.I have
  the bear DAT the paw ACC washed.
• a genitive NP in the POSSESSUM-NP
• Ich habe die Pfote des Bären gewaschen.I have
  the paw the bear GEN ACC washed.
• a PP in the POSSESSUM-NP
• Ich habe die Pfote von dem Bären gewaschen.'I
  washed the paw of the bear PP ACC.'

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Internal Possession in Japanese

• Dative External Possession Constructions are not
  available
• POSSESSORS are realized as a genitive NP in the
  POSSESSUM-NP
• Watashi-wa kuma-no asi-o aratta.I have the
  bearGEN the paw ACC washed.

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Data

• German 39 recordings(picture descriptions and
  asking for pieces)1286 utterances with/without V
  21 children (37-66)
• Japanese67 recordings (asking for pieces) 421
  utterances with V 16 children (211-65)

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Elicitation Material give
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Elicitation Material bite
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Elicitation Material wash


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Elicitation Material put on
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German The Use of Verbs ()
GAME
Verb
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Error Types

• More contexts for errors but no qualitative
  differences in error types observed so far
• PPs instead of IOs
• naturalistic (Carsten 36) für'n papa sollste
  aber den schenken for the daddy shall PART
  this-one give
• elicited (Jannik 64)
• da gibt das baby fuer das schaf ehm den
  gras. there gives the baby for the sheep ehm
  the grass

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Overt Arguments in Japanese ()
Jun naturalistic data
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Overt Markers in Japanese ( of Overt Arguments)
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Conclusion

• Elicitation games provide a useful tool for
  corpus collection.
• We should develop more elicitation tasks and
  employ them in cross-cultural and
  cross-linguistic studies.

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Outlook

• even more general elicitation games
• usable with several children
• coverage of a broad range of phenomena (e.g. N,
  A, V, P, number, case, gender, descriptions of
  movement and location, physical and psychological
  events,)

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References
Berko, Jean (1958). The child's learning of
English morphology. Word 14, 150-177. Clahsen,
Harald (1982). Spracherwerb in der Kindheit. Eine
Untersuchung zur Entwicklung der Syntax bei
Kleinkindern. Tübingen Narr. Clahsen, Harald,
Vainikka, Anne Young-Scholten, Martha (1990).
Lernbarkeitstheorie und Lexikalisches Lernen.
Eine kurze Darstellung des LEXLERN-Projekts.
Linguistische Berichte 130, 466-477. Eisenbeiss,
Sonja (1994). Elizitation von Nominalphrasen und
Kasusmarkierungen. In Sonja Eisenbeiß, Susanne
Bartke, Helga Weyerts Harald Clahsen (Eds.),
Elizitationsverfahren in der Spracherwerbsforschun
g Nominalphrasen, Kasus, Plural, Partizipien.
(Arbeiten des Sonderforschungsbereichs 282, Nr.
57). Düsseldorf Heinrich-Heine-Universität,
1-38. Eisenbeiss, Sonja, Matsuo, Ayumi (2003).
External and Internal Possession - A Comparative
Study of German and Japanese Child Language.
Paper presented at the 28th Annual Boston
University Conference on Language Development,
Boston University Eisenbeiss, Sonja (2002)
Merkmalsgesteuerter Grammatikerwerb Eine
Untersuchung zum Erwerb der Struktur und Flexion
von Nominalphrasen. Dissertation University of
Duesseldorf. http//diss.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ebi
b/diss/file?dissid1185 Wagner, Klaus R. (1985).
How much do children say in a day? Journal of
Child Language 12, 475-487.