The traceback method in child language acquisition research: identifying patterns in early speech

Abstract

This paper discusses the traceback method, which has been the basis of some influential papers on first language acquisition. The method sets out to demonstrate that many or even all utterances in a test corpus (usually the last two sessions of recording) can be accounted for with the help of recurrent fixed strings (like What’s that?) or frame-and-slot patterns (like [What’s X?]) that can also be identified in the remaining dataset (i.e., the previous sessions of recording). This is taken as evidence that language learning is much more item-based than previously assumed. In the present paper we sketch the development of the method over the last two decades, and discuss its relation to usage-based theory, as well as the cognitive plausibility of its components, and we highlight both its potential and its limitations.

Traceback and Chunk-Based Learning: Comparing Usage-Based Computational Approaches to Child Code-Mixing

“…It is important to note that, in all cases, not only the frame-and-slot patterns are attested in the main corpus but also the slot fillers that occur in the open slots in the individual utterances. It is, however, a matter of debate to what extent the patterns identified by TB are cognitively plausible (see e.g., Hartmann et al 2021). In our operationalization, first and foremost, they serve as a proof of concept that the code-mixed utterances can, in principle, be accounted for using frame-and-slot patterns.…”

“…In a series of previous studies, we have used the TB method (e.g., Quick et al 2018aQuick et al , 2018bQuick et al , 2018cQuick et al , 2021Quick and Hartmann 2021). As shown in Hartmann et al (2021), the TB method has originally been developed for testing the hypothesis that much of early child language can be accounted for with the help of a fairly limited set of patterns. Later on, the method was also used in a more explorative way to investigate those patterns in more detail.…”

The Building Blocks of Child Bilingual Code-Mixing: A Cross-Corpus Traceback Approach

“…However, the limitations of the traceback method, as discussed in e.g., Hartmann et al ( 2021 ), should be kept in mind. Perhaps most importantly, the traceback method is largely limited to the detection of distributional patterns.…”

“…Compared to other implementations of the traceback method, our approach entails the disadvantage that the pattern detection process does not take semantic and/or syntactic information into account, which can lead to rather implausible patterns being postulated. However, there is no guarantee that the linguistically informed patterns identified in previous traceback studies are psychologically plausible (see e.g., Hartmann et al, 2021). The purely data-driven approach can also be seen as an advantage as it detects patterns purely on the surface level without making far-reaching a-priori assumptions.…”

Priming of Frames and Slots in Bilingual Children’s Code-Mixing: A Usage-Based Approach

“…From a methodological point of view, the question arises how to account for patterns in children's speech. To identify chunks and frame-and-slot patterns, the traceback method has proven to be a very reliable operationalization (e.g., Lieven et al, 2009, for an overview see Hartmann et al, 2021). The basic idea of the traceback method is to account for a set of socalled target utterances by tracing them back to the previous utterances.…”