Here are some guidelines for helping you to answer the questions in
Assignment 3:

I.B.i:

Are there any qualitative differences in the kinds of error you
observe across different syntactic categories?

SOME THINGS TO LOOK FOR:

-- Is there any difference in how inflection "rules" are being applied
incorrectly?

-- Do the syntactic categories show any difference in whether a rule
is being applied to an incorrect stem?

-- Is there any difference in the frequency of errors across the
categories?

-- Do any categories show more or fewer types of errors?

I.B.ii:

At which age does Adam start marking overregularization errors?  Why
do you think Adam does not make such errors before this time?  Is
there a time when Adam starts recovering from such errors?  If yes,
when is that?  If no, what do you think the reason is?

-- I think this question is pretty clear.  You should relate the
patterns of errors to the stages of inflection learning, and draw on
the reading or class discussion for supporting any reasons you give
for what you observe.


II.B.i:

Is there a verb (or verbs) among those given to you for which Eve and
Sarah mostly use the correct past tense form?  Which verb(s) and why?
(You should be able to answer this question in two or three
sentences.)

-- In answering "why", think about the meaning or general usage of the
verb(s).

II.B.ii:

Within the data for each child, do you observe a difference in the
learning curves (reflected in the bar diagrams) of different verbs?
Discuss possible reasons for your findings for each child.

-- Make sure you discuss each child separately.  Compare the two
children in the next question.

SOME THINGS TO LOOK FOR:

-- Do any of the graphs reflect the "U-shaped learning curve" we
discussed in class?  Do any of them reflect "parts" of the learning
curve?

-- What factors might underlie where the graphs match (don't match)
the predicted curves?  Does it depend on different types of verbs?
on different ages?

-- If you're feeling ambitious, you could talk more about the kinds of
errors you observe for each verb.

II.B.iii:

Do you observe a difference in the learning curves across the two
children?  Discuss possible reasons for your findings.

SOME THINGS TO LOOK FOR:

-- Do you see consistency across the children in their overall
patterns?  What factor(s) could be responsible for any differences?
(age, mean length of utterance [you'd have to calculate this, or could
"eyeball" it to get a rough idea], number of verbs used, ...)

-- Do you see any consistent patterns for some verb(s) across the two
children?  Ie, do any verbs show similar patterns for the two children
more than other verbs?