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Working Memory in the

Acquisition of Vocabulary
and Syntax: Putting
Language in Good Order
Nick C. Ellis
Version of record first published: 22 Oct
2010.

To cite this article: Nick C. Ellis (1996): Working Memory in the Acquisition of
Vocabulary and Syntax: Putting Language in Good Order, The Quarterly Journal
of Experimental Psychology Section A: Human Experimental Psychology, 49:1,
234-250

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 TH E QUARTE R LY JOU RNAL O F E XPE R IM E NTAL PS YCH OL OG Y, 1996 , 49A (1), 234 ± 250

Working M em ory in the A cq uisition

of Vocabu lary and Syntax:
P utting L an guage in G ood Order
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N ick C. Ellis and S usan G. Sinclair

U niversity of Wa les B a ngor, B a ngor, Gwynedd, U.K .

T h is pa p er argues th at wo rk ing m em ory is heavily involved in lan gu age acqu isition as (a) a
m ajor p ar t of lan gu age lear nin g is th e lear n ing of sequ en ces, (b) w orking m em ory allow s
sh or t-ter m m ain ten an ce of sequ en ce infor m ation , an d (c) sh or t-ter m reh ear sa l of sequ en ces
prom otes the con so lid ation of lon g-ter m m em ories of langu age sequ en ces. It ® rst review s
evidence su pp or tin g th is p osition . N ext it p resen ts an experim en t th at d em on strates th at
su bjects en cou r aged to reh ear se foreign lan gu age (F L ) u ttera nc es are be tter than both silen t
con trols an d su bjects w h o are p reven ted from reh ears al by articulatory sup p ression at (a)
lear nin g to com p rehen d an d tran slate FL w ords an d p h rases, (b) explicit m etalin gu istic
kno w ledg e of th e d etailed co n ten t of g ram m atical regu larities, (c) acqu isition of the FL
for m s of w ord s an d p h r ases, (d ) accu rac y in F L p ro nu n ciatio n, and (e) so m e as pects of
prod u ctive (bu t n ot recep tive) g ram m atical ¯ u enc y and accu rac y. F inally, it d escribes p os-
sible m ech an ism s u nd erlying th ese e ffects.

T he attainm ent of ¯ uenc y, both in n ative an d foreign languages, involves th e acquisitio n

of m em orized seq uences of lan guage. L ear ning vocabulary involves sequencing the
phonological properties of the language: the categorical units, syllable structure, an d
phonotactic sequences. L ear ning discourse involves seq uencing the lexical units of the
langu age: clauses an d collocations (Sinclair, 1991).
A bility to retain novel sequences has long been regarded as a core com po nent of
hum an intellectual skill, an d short-ter m m em ory (ST M ) for sequences of words or d igits
has therefore featured in sub -tests of the Stanford-Binet an d Wech sler IQ tests. B ut
hum an s could not have evolved ST M in preparation for th e need to rem em b er teleph one
num bers. T hu s in the 1970s cognitive psychology focused on the qu estion of ``w hat is
ST M for?’ ’ Ð w hat is its role as a w orking m em ory in everyday cognition (Bad deley, 1986;
Bad deley & H itch, 1974; G athercole & B add eley, 1993)? If on e m ajor functio n of working

Requests for reprints sh ould be sent to N. Ellis , D epartm ent of Psyc hology, U niversit y of Wales Bangor,
Ban gor, G w yn edd, LL57 2D G, U.K . Em ail: N.E llis@ bangor.ac. uk
This researc h was assiste d by an E SRC rese arch training studentship (R 004289 24216 ) for the second author.
Thanks to Ivan Ue m lianin , G in ny Gathercole , Su e Gatherc ole, Elisabe t Service , and G raham H itch for useful
com me nts on earlie r drafts of this pap er.

q 199 6 The E xp erim ental Psyc holo g y S ociety

 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 235

m em ory co ncer ns the retention of seq uences of language, an d if language acquisitio n

heavily involves seq uence lear ning, then it seem s likely that langu age acquisitio n is one
of the things that w orking m em ory is for. T his propositio n is supported by dem o nstra-
tions that individuals’ language developm ent, both in ter m s of lexis an d syntax, is lim ited
by their S T M .

W o rking M em ory a nd V o cabu la ry

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Psychom etric assessm ent of ST M in young children is routinely perfor m ed in test

batteries su ch as the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic A b ilities (IT PA ; M cC arthy &
K irk, 1961) an d the Wechsler Pre-school an d P rim ary S cale of Intelligence (W P PSI;
Wechsler, 1967). T he IT PA m easures ST M span for digit sequences, w hereas the
W PP SI assesses th e longest sentence that can be cor rectly repeated. T hese two m easures
of ST M cor relate highly w ith children’ s vocab ulary know led ge as m easured by ability to
give de® nitions for a w ord (W PP SIvocab, r > 0.6) an d as assessed by ab ility to cor rectly
blend indiv idual sounds into a know n w ord (IT PA soun d blending, r > 0.5) (Reynell,
1983 , p. 34). Su ch high correlations, con siderably larger than those predicted by a general
intelligen ce factor, suggest th at ability to retain sh ort-ter m se quences of verbal m aterial is
associated w ith long-ter m vocabu lary acquisitio n. T he cor relations w ith IT PA digit span
are par ticularly impressive b ecau se here the span an d vocabulary m easures do not share
co ntent.
G athercole an d B addeley (1989) provide m ore focused evidence of this associatio n:
four-year old children’ s phonological S T M sp an (their ability to repeat novel no n-words
in order) predicted the siz e of their native lan guage vocabulary one year later, even w hen
prior vocabulary levels w ere statistically controlled. T his su ggests that ability to represent
the novel sou nd sequence of a new w ord in pho nolog ical ST M has a role in its longer
ter m con solidatio n bo th for later articulation an d as an entity w ith w hich m ean ing can be
associated.
T here are now a num b er of studies using different m ethodologies that converge on this
co nclusion. G athercole an d Badd eley (1990) report a training study w here children poor
on non-word repetition w ere foun d to b e slow er than ch ildre n w ho w ere good on n on-
word repetition at lear ning new vocabulary (pho nolog ically unfam iliar n am es such as
P ima s for toys). T hey w ere not slow er to lear n a new m ap ping for fam iliar vocabulary
(fam iliar nam es, e.g. Thoma s for the toys). Bad deley, Pap ag no, an d Vallar (1988) describe
an ad ult neuro psychological patient, PV, w ho had a high ly speci® c acq uired de® cit of
imm ediate ph onological m em ory. PV w as com pletely unable to m ake associations betw een
sp oken word an d non-w ord pairs, despite show ing n orm al pho nological processing of
non-wo rd m aterial. She had no dif® culty, however, in lear ning new associatio ns betw een
pairs o f w ords. T h us tem porary phonological m em ory seem s particularly involved in the
long-ter m lear ning of unfa milia r phon ological m aterial.
Just as pho nological ST M predicts acq uisition of vocabulary in native lan guage, so it
does in second an d foreig n languages. Service (1992) dem on strated that Finnish
ch ildren’ s S T M for p seudow ords th at sou nded like E nglish predicted their acquisitio n
of E nglish as a foreign lan gu age two an d a half years later. P honological ST M seem s
 236 E LL IS A N D S IN C LA IR

particularly im plicated in produ ctive vocabu lary w here the stu den t has a greater cognitive
burden in ter m s of sensory an d m otor lear ning. Seibert (1927) show ed that, for product-
ive lear ning of French vocabulary, saying w ords alou d led to faster lear ning an d b etter
retention than did silent rote repetitio n of vocabulary lists. E llis an d Beaton (1993a)
dem o nstrated that although keyw ord techniques are ef® cient m ean s for receptive voca-
bulary lear ning, for productive lear ning they are less effective than repetition (at least for
lear ners naõÈ ve to the pro nunciatio n patter ns of the foreign lan gu age). Pap agno, Valentine,
an d B ad deley (1991) show ed that w hen lear ning to produ ce novel vocab ulary w ith w ritten
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responses, articulatory sup pression (w hich disrup ts the articu latory loop com ponent of
sh ort-term m em ory) interfered w ith th e lear nin g of Russian vocab ulary but not native-
langu age p aired associates in Italian ad ults.
E ach language has its ow n set of ph onem es an d its charateristic sequential pho nem e
prob ab ilities, w hich co nstitute pho notactic regularity. G athercole, W illis, E m slie, an d
Bad deley (1991) dem onstrated that the ``wordlikeness’ ’ of no n-words (e.g. ``defer m ica-
tion’ ’ is high in E nglish w ordlikeness com pared to ``loddenap ish’ ’ ) predicte d their ease of
sh ort-term repetition. Pho notactic regularity predicts lo ng-ter m acquisitio n as well:
foreign languag e (F L ) w ord s that are m ore d if® cult for a lear ner to pronounce are
acq uired m ore slow ly than are those that are easier to pro nounce (Rodgers, 1969), an d
this ho lds even w hen word length, frequency, part-of-sp eech, an d im ageability are
co ntrolled (E llis & B eato n, 1993a, 1993b). T hu s the fam iliarity of a novel word’ s phono-
log ical structure deter m ines both its sho rt-ter m repetitio n accuracy an d its long-ter m
lear nability.
In sum , th ere is a considerable body of evidence that phonological factors are
involved in (particularly productive) vocab ulary acquisitio n: (a) Phon ological ST M
sp an predicts both native an d second language vocabulary acquisition; (b) interfering
w ith phonological S T M by m ean s of articulatory suppressio n disrupts vocabulary
lear ning w hen sem an tic associations between the native an d foreign w ord are not
read ily available; (c) short-ter m repetition of novel FL words in w orking m em ory
prom otes their lo ng-ter m learning; an d (d) FL w ord re gularity in ter m s of native
langu age pho notactics determ ines lear nability.

W o rking M em ory a nd S yn tax

C onsider ably less work has ad dressed the role of phonological ST M in the acquisitio n of
syntax, even though there is increasing supp ort for the notion that the sam e psychological
m echan ism s underpin vocabulary an d syntax acquisitio n (M archm an & B ates, 1994).
H owever, the sam e sorts of evidence that have been describ ed for vocabulary are to be
found fo r an associatio n between verbal S T M span an d g ram m atical ability.
1. T here are psychom etric data. T he IT PA g ram m atical closu re test asks children to
co m plete oral statem ents like ``H ere is a ch ild. H ere are three __ __ _’ ’ w hile show ing them
an ap propriate picture to reduce the ST M load of the test itself. T he psychom etric ST M
sp an m easures described above correlate highly w ith this m easure (r $ 0.52), as they do
w ith general verbal com prehen sion an d expression abilities as m easured on the Reynell
(1983) test (0.62 $ r $ 0.54). C hildren w ho are b etter at short-ter m retention of verbal
sequences are also g ram m atically m ore pro® cient.
 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 237

Phonological w orking m em ory has also been show n to correlate w ith g ram m atical
ability. Speidel (1993) describ es poor language develo pm ent (word -order p roblem s an d
syntactic er rors) in a child w ith a phonological ST M disab ility. Blake, Austin, C an no n,
L isus, an d Vaugh an (1994) dem on strate that S T M for w ords predicted m ean length of
utteran ce in 2- to 3-year olds better than did eith er chronological age or m ental age.
A dam s an d G athercole (1995) an alysed speech corpora of 3-year old children an d show ed
that good pho nological m em ory ability w as associated w ith longer, m ore g ram m atically
co m plex productions that contained a richer ar ray of words.
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2. T he obverse is also true: Syntactic developm ent is prejudiced in individuals w ith

de® cient workin g m em ory. D yslexia is a developm ent disorder associated w ith reduced
working m em o ry storage fo r verbal m aterialsÐ in deed, reduced ST M span is one of the
classic de® ning criteria of the co nditio n (E llis & L arge, 1987; E llis & M iles, 1981).
Scarborough (1991) lon gitudinally assessed at ages from 30 to 60 m on ths the syntactic
abilities of p re-schoolers w h o later b ecam e disabled read ers, an d dem o nstrated that the
dyslexic individu als were poorer on all m easures o f syntax (g ram m atical com plexity o n
the Index of P roductive Syntax, m ean length of utteran ce, an d sen tence com prehensio n
on the N orthw ester n Syntax Screening Test). In dyslexic children, therefore, reduced
sh ort-term m em ory span , pho nological processing de® cits, an d restricted acquisition of
syntax go han d-in-h an d, an d it seem s likely that problem s in iden tifying an d lear nin g the
sequences of categorical units of language is the com m o n feature in all of these d if® culties.
D yslexic individuals also have co nsiderable dif® culty in lear ning foreign lan guages.
Sparks, G an schow, Javorsky, Pohlm an , an d Pa tto n (1992) dem o nstrate that lan guage
delayed college students w ho are de® cient o n native syn tax an d phonology an d w h o
have verbal short-term m em ory de® cits in their native language also score poorly on all
su btests of the M oder n L an guage Aptitude Test (C arroll & Sap o n, 1955).
3. F inally, th ere is evid ence from a training stu dy. D an em an an d C ase (1981) provided
direct evid ence for individuals’ S T M cap acity determ ining their ef® cacy in lear ning an
arti® cial language. C hildren between 2 an d 6 years old were sim ultaneously exposed to
novel actio ns involving one, two, or three sem an tic features an d to novel labels for these
actio ns. T he labels had a stem for m (e.g. pum), an d sem an tic features were m arked
syntactically w ith either a suf® x (e.g. pum± a bo), a pre® x, or both a su f® x an d a pre® x
(e.g. a ± pum± ta y). Posttests were given in w hich the children had to supply either the
ap propriate action for a lab el or the ap propriate label for an action. T he results show ed
the follow ing: (a) Syntactic com plexity affected the d if® culty of producing the lab els b ut
not their recognition. S uf® xes w ere easier to process than pre® xes an d pre® x es were in
tur n easier th an suf® xes an d pre® xes. T hat syntactic com plexity affects produ ctio n but not
recognitio n is the m orph ological counterpart of the ® ndin g of E llis an d B eato n (1993a,
1993 b) that the phon otactic com plexity of n ovel words affects th eir prod uction m ore than
their recognitio n; (b) S T M cap acity w as a strong predictor of acquisition of the language.
D an em an an d C ase argued th at, in the early stages of lear ning, before the m or phem e
sequences have b een lexicalized, lear ners had to retrieve the verb stem (pum) an d the
ap propriate m arker s (e.g. a ± an d ± ta y), order them ap propriately in ST M , an d produce
the result. Because a an d ta y had to b e placed on op posite sides of the verb stem , they
were encoded an d stored in S T M as separate chunks. By contrast, becau se the two
syllables of a bo are co ntiguous, they could be treated as one chunk. C onsequently,
 238 E LL IS A N D S IN C LA IR

generating puma bo in the linguistic productio n task w as easier than producin g a pumta y,
because it imposed less w orking m em ory load . L ear ners w ith g reater w orking m em ory
capacity were better able to sequence m ore com plex m orphological co nstructions in the
sh ort ter m , an d, as a consequence of practice at this, th ey were m ore likely to co nsolidate
au tom atized chunked sequence representations of freq uent p atter ns in long-term m em ory
(LTM ).
In sum , these studies su ggest an involvem ent of phon ological W M in syntax acquisi-
tion: (a) Pho nological ST M sp an predicts n ative gr am m atical ability; (b ) individuals w ith
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ST M d e® cits show restricted acquisitio n of syn tax b oth in native an d foreign languages;
(c) the m ore chunks in a syntactic m ark er, the m ore dif® cult it is to acquire; (d) ch ildren’ s
ST M capacity deter m ines their success in lear ning the syntax of an arti® cial lan gu age.

Th e P resent E xp erim ent:

R ep etitio n and Lan g uag e Le arn in g
T his review has dem onstrated a role of phono logical w orking m em ory in vocabulary
acq uisition, an d it has further exten ded the argum ent to suggest th at p honological w ork-
ing m em ory functio ns in the acquisition of syntax. B ut alth oug h there are experiments
that show that p honological rehearsal of novel w ords facilitates lo ng-ter m vocabulary
lear ning, this sam e case rem ains to be dem onstrate d fo r the role of pho nological rehearsal
of m ulti-word utterances in (a) the acqu isition of phrases an d collocation s an d (b)
abstraction of syntactic regularities.
In add itio n to its theoretical interest, this qu estion has practical im por t: sh ou ld
lear ners be encouraged to repeat new F L or second-language utteran ces or not?
Indeed, co ntrary to the im plications of the psychological research review ed above,
som e ap plied linguists advocate that sp eech be prohibited an d a ``silen t period’ ’ m ain-
tained during the early stages of language acq uisitio n (Asher, 1969; K rashen & Ter rell,
1983 ).
In ord er to study this, the presen t experiment very sim ply investig ated the role of
articulatory rehearsal of FL u tteran ces in language acquisition . It com pared FL Welsh
acq uisition b etw een individuals w ho w ere encouraged to repeat novel-language utterances
an d th ose w ho were prevented by articulatory supp ression so to do. A third group of
lear ners constituted a control g roup : T hese in dividuals rem ained silent during lan guage
ex po sure but were otherw ise allow ed to do as they choseÐ although they did not overtly
rehearse the utteran ces, they m ay well have naturally done so subvocally. A w ide variety of
aspects of langu age acquisitio n w ere assessed: Fo r receptive language, there w as the ability
to tran slate isolated word s an d multi-w ord utteran ces into native En glish; for productio n,
there w as (a) the ab ility to rem em ber the F L words an d ph rases given the E nglish, (b ) the
ability to pro nounce these correctly, (c) the ability to use a com plicated g ram m atical
structure, the so ft m utatio n in WelshÐ to deter m ine w hen it is ap propriate an d to
rem em ber the particular ph onological chan ges for particular noun-initial phonem es.
We also assessed two oth er aspects of the assim ilation of g ram m atical structure: (a)
implicit know ledg e of g ram m aticality as index ed by accuracy an d latency of recognitio n
of correctness in speeded well-for m edn ess tests; (b) explicit know ledge of the u nderlying
rule-structure of the soft m utation in Welsh.
 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 239

M eth o d

Subjects
E ighty-seven n o n-Welsh- speakin g su bjec ts (57 fem ales and 30 m ale s) w ere recru ited from th e
D ep artm en tal su bject p an el or th e U n iversity u n d erg r adu ate p opu lation . T h eir age ra ng e w as 18± 40
year s (m ean = 21). T h ey were pa id £ 2.50 for p articipatin g in th e exp erim en t. T h ey w ere ran d om ly
assigned to on e of th e th ree co nd ition s.
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M aterials and Procedure

T h e exp erim ent con sisted of on e lear n ing p h ase an d a varie ty of testing p ha ses. It lasted ap p rox-
im ately tw o h our s.
In th e lea rning pha se, su bjec ts w ere instru cted to lear n E n glish tr an slation s of Welsh u tter an ces
p rod u ced by a M acintosh com p u ter p ro gr am m ed u sing H yp ercard . T h ese u tter an ces, digitiz ed
record ings of a ¯ u en t Welsh sp eaker, includ ed 10 sin gle w ord s (5 p airs of no u n s beginn ing w ith
the letters t, c, d, p, an d m), 10 u ses of th ese w ord s in a ph r asal co n str uct incor po r atin g ``ble ma e_ ___ _’ ’
[``w here is____ _’ ’ ], an d 10 usages of th ese w ord s in th e ph r asal con stru ct ``ei_ ___ _o’ ’ [``h is__ _ _’ ’ ]. A s
can be s een in A p pe nd ix 1, th e con str u ct ``ei____ _o’ ’ m akes u se of a gr am m atical ru le, th e Welsh so ft
m utatio n, w h ich caus es cer tain initial p h on em es of no u n s to chan ge so u n d (see E llis, 1993). D ifferen t
classes of con so n an t u n d erg o different p ho no logical cha ng es. For exam ple, th e voiceless p losives / p,

h om org an ic fricatives / v, d /; an d th e na sal / m / is rep laced by th e ho m org an ic fricative / v /. Soft

t, k / are replaced by th e voiced p losive s / b, d , g /; th e voiced p losives / b, d / are rep laced by th e

m utatio n is cau sed by a w ide variety of gr am m atical con texts. S om e of th ese are very sp eci® c, su ch as
(i) after th e p erso n al p ro n ou n m eanin g ``h is’ ’ Ð thu s ``son’ ’ tr an slates as ``ma b’ ’ bu t ``h is so n’ ’ is ``ei
fa b o’ ’ ; (ii) after th e p rep ositio n ``o’ ’ m ean ing ``from ’ ’ Ð th u s th e local tow n is ``B an gor’ ’ , b ut o n e
w ou ld com e ``o Fa ngor’ ’ . O th ers are very genera l, for exam ple w hen a fem inin e sin gu lar n ou n follow s
the d e® n ite ar ticle ``y’ ’ Ð thu s ``gwra ig’ ’ [``h ou sew ife’ ’ ] becom es ``y wra ig’ ’ . T h us the so ft m utatio n of
Welsh is a com plicated ru le sy stem , an d lear ner s n eed to kn ow of (a) its exis ten ce, (b) the set of
p ho n em es th at m utate an d th eir mu tated equ ivalen ts, an d (c) the con texts th at call for th is m u tation .
L ike m any asp ects of g ram m ar, it looks rem arkably com p licated w h en exp licitly d escribe d, yet n ative
lan gu age sp eakers u se the str u ctu re ¯ aw lessly an d u n con sciou sly.
O n each trial of th e lea rning pha se, the com p u ter p layed a p re-record ed u ttera nce an d th e su bject
h ad to resp on d by typ ing in th e E n glish tr an slation . If th e resp on se w as u nk n ow n or incor rect, th e
correct E ng lish tran slation w as d isp layed o n th e V D U an d th e su bject w as allow ed to take as lo ng as
w as n ecessary to stu dy th e cor rect tran slation before rep eatin g th at trialÐ th ey pressed th e retu r n key
w h en ready, th e u ttera nce w as reiter ated, an d th ey th en typ ed in th e fresh ly stu d ied tr an slation . T h e
30 u tteran ces w ere p resen ted in r an d om ord er, an d fou r p asses th ro ug h the se m aterials com po sed th e
lear n ing p h ase. T h e com p u ter m on itor ed th e accu rac y of th e su bjects’ tr an slation s.
Th e th ree condition s in th e exp erim ent differed on ly du ring th is lear ning ph ase. Su bjects in th e silent
con dition m ain tain ed silence. S ub jects in th e repetition con dition w ere instructed alw ays to repeat alou d
the Welsh u tterances w henever th ey h eard th e com pu ter say th em . In con trast, subjects in th e a rticu-
la tory suppression (AS ) con d ition w ere prevented from ever articulatin g the language strin gs durin g th e
lear n ing ph ase. T h is w as ach ieved by their havin g to coun t a w hispered on e to ® ve in a con tinuous cycle
w hilst listen ing to the Welsh stimuli and typ ing in the cor rect tran slation s. T he exp erim enter sat in
throug ho ut the session to m onitor an d ensur e subjects’ com pliance w ith th is requirement.
T h e exp erim en t ad ditio n ally involve d ano th er betwee n-su bjects factor, w h ich w as crossed w ith
the silen t/rep etition /A S con d ition s an d w h ich con trasted exp licit w ith im p lic it instr uc tion . H alf of
the su bjects, the exp licit g rou p, ® rst received a sh or t ph ase of instru ctio n in Welsh so ft-m u tation .
 240 E LL IS A N D S IN C LA IR

T h is sim p ly involved ou t-of-con text lear n ing, to a criterio n of on e com p lete set of 5 cor rect trials, th e
u nm u tated eq uivalen ts of th e ® v e m utated initial letter s ou t of con text (e.g. g = c, f = m , etc.). A s
there w ere n o co nsisten t inter action s betw een th is factor and th e silen t/rep etition /A S factor and as
effects of exp licit/im p licit instru ctio n are n ot th e focu s of the p resent pa per, it w ill n ot be discu ssed
fur th er h ere. F u rth er d etails are available from th e au thor s on requ est.
T h e exp erim en t assessed variou s asp ects of lan gu age lear n ing th at ha d resu lted from th e lan gu age
experien ced d u ring th e lear n ing p ha se.
T h e well- formedness test w as d esign ed to elicit fast jud gem ents of g ram m atical cor rectness. T h e
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su bjects w ere aske d to resp on d by typ ing Y if a str ing w as gr am m atical an d N if the strin g w as n ot.
T h ey w ere ® r st given p r actice trials in E n glish to fam iliariz e th em selves w ith th e tech niqu e (e.g. ``h e
ru n d ow n th e ro ad ’ ’ Ð N ). O n ce th ey w ere h ap py w ith th is p ro cedu re, they m oved on to jud ge 40
Welsh stim uli. R an d om ly ord ered aur al trials w h ere each of th e exem p lar w ord s app eared cor rectly
m utatin g in th e m u tatin g co nstru ct (``ei geg o’ ’ ), cor rec tly no t mu tatin g in the n on -m utating con stru ct
(``ble ma e ceg’ ’ ), incor rectly m utatin g in th e n on -m utatin g co ns tr uct (``ble ma e geg’ ’ ) an d incor rectly
n ot m u tatin g in th e m u tatin g con stru ct (``ei ceg o’ ’ ) w ere p layed to th e su bjects. T h ey w ere asked to
m ake a jud ge m en t con cer n ing g ra m m aticality as qu ickly as p ossible, and n o feed back w as given . T h e
com p uter m on itored accu racy an d respo nse laten cy.
T h e rule test pha se assessed exp licit m etalin guistic aw aren ess of th e ru le str u ctu re u n d erlying
m utatio ns. T h e p h r asal co ns tr uct an d th e initial so u n d of a Welsh n ou n w ere p layed to th e su bjects,
an d th ey h ad to typ e in th e u n m utated so u n d of th e no u n (e.g. ``ei d . . . o’ ’ = t). N o feed back w as
given , and th e s ub jects were tested just o n ce on th e ® ve initial sou n d s of th e n oun s alo ne an d w h en
em bedd ed in both co n str ucts.
T h e speech production test assessed ability to p rod u ce or ally strings of th e com p lete set (A p pen d ix
1) of previou sly h eard Welsh u tteran ces. A ll g ro u p s h eard th e E n glish tran slation of th e stim uli an d
w ere requ ired to say th e correct Welsh tr an slation . It w as th e ® r st tim e th at any sub ject ha d to
tran slate from na tive to foreign lan gu age, an d th e ® r st op p ortun ity for the silen t an d su p p ressio n
gr ou p s to sp eak Welsh . T his p h ase w as recorded , an d su bjects’ sp eech w as later scored for accu rac y
of sy n tax, m orp h ology, kn ow led ge of ru le stru ctu re, an d p ro n un ciation . T he record ings w ere saved
u ntil all su bjects h ad com pleted th e exp erim en t, an d the n th e sp eech prod u ctio ns w ere an alysed in a
ran d om order by th e exp erim enter. Variou s m e asures w ere taken from th e su bjects’ u tteran ces. T h e
p rop or tion of trials on w hich a su bject actu ally attem p ted a Welsh u ttera nce w as cou nted Ð a fair
p rop or tion of trials p ro du ced ``n o attem p ts’ ’ . A cqu isition of vocabu lary (th e 10 m ain w ords sp oken
alon e an d in th e tw o d ifferen t p h rasal con str u cts) w as ne xt assessed in tw o w ays: F irst th ere w as a
lexical an alysis : if the sp oken resp on se w as ap p roxim ate en oug h to the ap pr op riate Welsh w ord th at it
could be recogniz ed as it or a close d eviatio n from it, it w as scored as cor rect on th is m eas ure. T h en
there w as a strict p ro n un ciation m easur e, w h ich d em an d ed th at th e w ord be pro no u n ced com p letely
correctly b efore a score w as given . T h e pr od u ctio n of th e tw o p h rasal con stru cts (``ble ma e____ _’ ’ ,
``ei____ _ o’ ’ ) w as assessed in a sim ilar fash io n : (a) for a close ap p roxim ation , (b) for com p letely
accu rate p ro nu n ciation . M easu res of g ram m atical p erfor m an ce involved sep arately cou n tin g th e
nu m ber of tim es su bjects cor rectly m u tated the initial so u n d s of no u n s u sed w ith th e ``ei__ _ _o’ ’
con struc t an d cor rectly d id n ot m utate th e initial so u n ds of w ord s used in th e ``ble ma e__ _ _’ ’
con struc t. Finally, th ere w as a m e asure of over all cor rectn ess of w ho le p h ra se s, w h ich d em an d ed
that th e u ttera nce be com p letely cor rect, both in ter m s of ap p ro priate lexical and syn tactic for m an d
of cor rect p ro nu n ciation .
T h e com p u ter iz ed p resen tation of m aterials en tailed a m ove aw ay from tr u ly n atur alistic
lear n ing bu t allow ed th e advan tage of a com plete record of th e tim e taken , er ro rs m ad e, an d
nu m ber of trials need ed for each su bjec t, th ese, in tu r n , allow ing a th oro ug h an alysis of the g ro u p
d ifferen ces.
 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 241

R esu lts
Fo r the sake of clear focus an d brevity, w e describe only the effects of co ndition o n
accuracy. T he co ndition m ean s an d 95% co n® den ce intervals for each condition in
each phase of the experiment are show n in Figure 1.

Lea rning P ha se. T h ere w as a signi® can t effect of cond itio n on the num ber of accurate
tran slations generated in the lear ning phase F(2, 83) = 13.31, M S e = 475.91, p < 0.0001.
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Post hoc B onferroni com parisons of the m ean s dem o nstrated that A S w as signi® can tly
inferior to repetition (p < 0.0001) an d to silent (p < 0.005), but that repetition w as only
m argin ally superior to silent (p = 0.05).
Phrases involving th e m utating co nstru ct ``ei_____o’ ’ w ere lear ned less accurately
(15.9% , S D 11.6) than either the non-mu tating phrase ``ble ma e_____’ ’ (38.5% , S D
17.3) or th e w ords alone (42.1% , S D 17.7), F(2, 166) = 279.75, M S e = 63.42, p <
0.0 001. A lthough there w as som e C onstruct 3 C o nditio n inter action, F(4, 166) = 3.54,
M S e = 63.42, p < 0.01, Bonfer ro ni tests co n® r m ed sign i® can t advan tages of repetitio n
over A S for all three co nstructs (words alone, ``ble ma e_____’ ’ , an d ``ei__ ___ o’ ’ ).

Well-formedness Test. Perfor m an ce on this test as a w hole w as signi® cantly g reater

than the 50% ch an ce level, t(86) = 12.49, p < 0.0001, as it w as for each g roup taken
individually (all ps < 0.0001). H ow ever, there w as no signi® can t effect of co ndition on the
g ram m aticality judgem ents, F(2, 81) = 1.58, M S e = 120.16, n.s.

R ule Test. T he differen t conditions of exposu re had a signi® can t effect on su bjects’
resultant explicit know ledge of the rules of m utatio n, F(2, 83) = 3.77, M S e = 1127.29, p <
0.0 5. Bo nferroni testing dem o nstrated that this effect lay m ainly in the inferior perfor m -
an ce of the A S group com pared to repetition (p = 0.01) an d silent (p = 0.06).

S peech P roduction. T he learn ers’ attem pts at producing Welsh w ere scored in a
num ber of w ays. T he ® rst m easure w as the num b er of trials on w hich subjects actually
attem pted a Welsh utteran ce. T here w as a signi® can t effect of condition on this, F(2, 81) =
11.95, M S e = 554.77, p < 0.0001. B onferron i tests dem onstrated an advan tage of
repetitio n over both silent (p < 0.005) an d A S (p < 0 .0001), b ut no signi® can t difference
between these latter two groups.
T here w ere two separate m easu res of vocabulary acquisitio n. F irst, respo nses that
ap proximated enough to the ap propriate Welsh w ord that they could be categoriz ed as
su ch or as deviations from it w ere scored as correct. T here w as a signi® cant effect of
co ndition o n this, F(2, 81) = 18.26, M S e = 388.11, p < 0.0001. Bonfer ro ni tests dem on-
strated worse perfor m an ce of A S com pared w ith both silence (p < 0.0 5) an d repetitio n
(p < 0.0001), an d a signi® can t advan tage of repetitio n over silence (p < 0.0 005). A doptio n
of the stricter criterion that th e vocabulary had to be pro nounced com pletely cor rectly

0.0 001, repetitio n > silent (p < 0.0001), repetition > A S (p < 0.0001), silen t » A S (n.s.).
co n® r m ed th e particular advan tage of repetitio n, F(2, 81) = 20.13, M S e = 160.91, p <

T he production of the phrasal constructs (``ble ma e_____’ ’ , ``ei_ ____o’ ’ ) w as scored in

sim ilar fashion. T here w as a signi® cant effect of co ndition on prod uction of ap proximately
co rrect phrases, F(2, 81) = 18.30, M S e = 905.01, p < 0.0001, w ith repetition > silent (p <
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FIG . 1. M ean perce ntage of accuracy as a functio n of c onditio n in each phase and outc om e measure of the
expe rim e nt. A bbrevia tions for the conditio ns are as follow s: S ilent = sile nt group, R ep’ n = repetitio n g roup,
AS = artic ulatory su ppressio n g roup. Erro r bars re present 95% con® dence in tervals.

242
 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 243

0.0 001), repetition > A S (p < 0.0001), silent » A S (n.s.). T here w as a sim ilar effect o n the

repetitio n > silent (p < 0.0001), repetition > A S (p < 0.0001), silent » A S (n.s.).
accurate pro nunciatio n of phrases, F(2, 81) = 13.52, M S e = 279.97, p < 0.0001, w ith

T he m easure of g ram m atical perfor m an ce in ter m s of the subjects’ cor rectly soft
m utating the initial soun ds of nouns used w ith the ``ei_ ___ _o’ ’ construct also dem on-

repetitio n > silent (p < 0.05), repetition > A S (p < 0.001), silent » A S (n.s.). T he obverse
strated a signi® can t effect of cond ition , F(2, 81) = 6.62, M S e = 111.95, p < 0.0 05, w ith

ability of cor rectly not-m utating the initial sounds of nouns used w ith the ``ble ma e_ ____’ ’
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co nstruct yielded sim ilar effects, F(2, 81) = 16.65, M S e = 352.61 , p < 0.0001, w ith
repetitio n > silent (p < 0.005), repetitio n > A S (p < 0.0001), silent > A S (p < 0.05).
A ll of these aspects of production co ntribute to an over all m easure of correctness
w here the criterio n is that the Welsh utteran ce shou ld be an ap propriate tran slatio n
that is w ell for m ed in lexis an d syntax an d accurately pronoun ced. A g ain there is a

silent (p < 0.0001), repetition > A S (p < 0.0001), silent » A S (n.s.).

signi® can t effect of condition, F(2, 81) = 21.10 , M S e = 48.52, p < 0.001, w ith repetition >

D iscussio n
It is clear that rehearsal in phonological ST M provides a w ide ran ge of language-lear ning
advantages. If w e com p are individ uals w ho w ere forced to reh earse (repetitio n) w ith those
preven ted from so doing (A S), then the results of this experiment dem onstrate that
phonological rehearsal of FL utteran ces resu lts in superior perform an ce in (a) receptive
skills in ter m s of lear ning to com preh end an d tran slate F L w ords an d phrases, (b) explicit
m etaling uistic kn ow ledge o f the detailed co ntent of g ram m atical regularities, in this case
the pho nological chan ges of the Welsh soft m utatio n, (c) acquisitio n of the F L for m s of
words an d phrases, (d) accuracy in F L pro nunciatio n, an d (e) g ram m atical ¯ uency an d
accuracy, in this case in ter m s of cor rectly mu tating or not-m utating as ap propriate in a
given g ram m atical constr uct. T he only test w h ere this com pariso n w as non-signi® can t
co ncer ned receptive g ram m aticality judgem ents. O ne criticism that m ight be levied
ag ainst these conclusio ns is that A S m ight not be serving as a rehearsal-speci® c inter-
ference, bu t, rather, that it m ay cau se general interference as a result of its ad ditional
attentio nal processing dem an ds, an d th us the design requires a no n-articulato ry inter-
ference treatm ent (such as ® n ger-tapp ing as used by Pa pagno et al., 1991) as a con trol.
H owever, this criticism does not ap ply here b ecau se the effects (a), (c), (d), an d (e)
describ ed ab ove are all replicated as signi® can t in the advan tage of the repetition g rou p
over the silen t g rou p, w ho w ere not sub jected to an y interference treatm ents at all.
T hese ® ndings do not tell us w hether the advan tage of rehearsal lies at input or output.
T he repetitio n effect m ay arise from the subjects’ articulating the F L utteran ces (output),
from their hearing their ow n rep etitions (and thus getting twice the input of th e A S
g roup), or from a com binatio n of the two. F urther experimentation is need ed to ch oose
between these alter natives.
So w hat is the involvem ent of phonological S T M in langu age lear ning? O ur argum ent
w ill echo M elto n’s preference ``for a theoretical strategy that accepts S T M an d LT M as
m ediated by a single type of storage m echan ism . In su ch a continuum , fre quenc y of
repetitio n ap pears to be the im portant independent variable, `chunkin g’ seem s to be
 244 E LL IS A N D S IN C LA IR

the im portant intervening variable, an d the slope of the retention curve is the im portant
dependent variable’ ’ (M elto n, 1963, p. 19). M elton based these conclusio ns o n the
interactions of ST M an d LT M in the lear ning of letter or digit seq uences. We b egin
by considering vocabulary acquisition an d then extend the argum ent to syntax.

W orking M em ory± LT M Interactions in the A cquisition of

Vocabu lary Surface Form
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Fo r the case of vocabulary acquisition, G athercole et al. (1991, pp. 364± 365) take a
position similar to M elton’ s: ``N onw ord repetition ability an d vocabulary know ledge
develop in a highly interactive m an ner. Intrinsic phonological m em ory skills m ay influence
the lear ning of new w ords by constraining the retention of unfam iliar phonological
sequences, but in addition, extent of vocabulary w ill affect the ease of generating ap pro-
priate phonological fram es to support the phonological representations.’ ’ T his is as true for
foreign as for native language. T he novice FL learner com es to the task w ith a cap acity for
repeating native words. T he degree to w hich the relevan t skills and knowledge are transfer-
able to imm ediate FL w ord repetition depends on the deg ree to w hich the phonotactic
patterns in the FL ap proxim ate to those of the native language (Ellis & Beaton, 1993b).
T hus long-term know ledge affects phonological ST M . T he present experim ent and that of
Ellis an d Beaton (1993a) shows that the reverse is also trueÐ repetition of FL for m s
prom otes long-ter m retention. We assum e that as learners practise hearing an d producing
FL words, so they au tom atically an d implicitly acquire knowledge of the statistical frequencies
an d sequential probabilities of the phonotactics of the FL . In turn, as they begin to abstract
know ledge of FL regularities, they becom e m ore pro® cient at short-term repetition of novel
FL w ords. And so FL vocabulary learning lifts itself up by its bootstraps.
A lthough lear ners need not be aw are of the processes of such patter n extraction, they
w ill later b e aw are of the product of these processes, becau se the next tim e they experience
that patter n it is the patter ned chunk of w hich they w ill be aw are, not the in dividual
co m ponents (e.g. w hile ch ildren are lear ning about an alogue clocks, they closely attend to
the features an d relative positions of han ds an d num erals; w hen experienced ad ults
co nsult th eir w atch, th ey are aw are of the time an d have no imm ediate access to such
low er-level perceptual infor m atio n; M orton, 1967). S uch in ¯ uences of LT M on working
m em ory underlie the developm ent of au tom aticity (L aB erge & Sam uels, 197 4; M cL au ghlin,
1978 ; Schm idt, 1992). E xam ple of these inter actions in the dom ain of language include
the effects of long-ter m lexical know ledge on ST M for w ords (B row n & H ulme, 1992),
long-ter m pho nolog ical know led ge on ST M for no nwords an d foreign-language w ords
(E llis & B eato n, 1993b; G athercole & Bad deley, 1993; Treim an & D an is, 1988), long-ter m
g ram m atical kn ow ledge o n ST M fo r p hrases (E pstein, 1967), an d lo ng-ter m sem an tic
know ledge on ST M fo r w ord strings (C ook, 1979).

W orking M em ory in the A cqu isition of Vocabulary R eference

H owever, these processes concer n m erely the acq uisition of ch un ks of language, an d

langu age ability involves m uch m ore than its surface for m Ð its function is reference. T he
above-described lear ning m echan ism s result in sequences of language that are potentia l
labels, but we m ust consider also the developm ent of reference.
 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 245

In ad dition to implicit lear ning w ithin input m odalities, attentional focus in w orking
m em ory can result in the form ation of cross-m odal associations. N odes that are simultan-
eously or contiguously attended in w orking m em ory tend to becom e associated in the long
term . T he implicit patter n-detection processes that occur within these m odalities of repre-
sentation entail that any such cross-moda l associations typically occur between the highest
chunked level of activated node. T hus, to extend M orton’s (1967) exam ple, the ad ult looking
at the clock when post falls through the letter-box each m orning lear ns an association of ma il-
time w ith 08.30, not one between envelopes an d the big han d of the clock.
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Similar processes occur w ithin the language system . C onsider as illustratio n two

salient visual inpu t. T he older ch ild, w ho know s the w ords h e d an d eik, attends to the
ch ildren of d ifferent ages hearing the com plaint, ``I have a head ache’ ’ , w h ile they ob serve

sequence of these two ch unks along w ith the visu al pattern. T h e younger child, w h o has

sequence of chunks: //h // e // d // ei // k //, an d there is concom itantly a g reater

heard neither such w ords nor such syllables before, has to attend to a m uch longer

ch an ce of error in sequencing (for exam ple, C rystal, 1987, describes a child w h o pro-
nounced bla nket as [bwati], [bati], [baki], an d [b atit] w ithin a few hours of each other). N o
strong cross-m odal associatio n between the attended u nit in the v isual m odule an d a
co m m o n representation in the language m odule can resu lt. T he m ore the units of
langu age com e as p ackaged w h oles, the g reater the p ossibility of attention al focus an d
resultant association.
A sim ilar explanation can be ap plied to the FL lear ning involved in the present
ex periment. T he m ore often the FL u tteran ces are repeated in phonological workin g
m em ory, the m ore reg ularities an d chunks of spoken FL are abstracted, an d the m ore
accurately an d readily these can be called to working m em ory, either for accurate pro-
nunciatio n as articulatory outp ut or as labels for association w ith the native-lang ua ge
tran slations.

W orking M em ory in the A cquisition of Lon ger U tte rances

Just w hat are the m ean ingful units of language acquisitio n (Peters, 1983 )? Sinclair
(1991, p. 110), as a result o f his experience d irecting the C obu ild project, the largest
lexicog raph ic an alysis of the E n glish language to date, proposed the principle of idiom: ``a
langu age user h as available to him or her a large nu m ber of sem i-preconstructed phrases
that co nstitute sin gle choices, even th ou gh th ey m ight ap pear to be an alysable in to
seg m ents.’ ’ C ollo cations an d stock p hrases are view ed w ith just the sam e im portance in
FL research , w here they are know n as holophrases (Corder, 1973), prefabricated routines
an d p atter ns (H akuta, 1974), fo rm ulaic speech (Wo ng-F illm ore, 1976), m em orized sen-
ten ces an d lexicaliz ed stem s (Paw ley & S yd er, 198 3), or for m ulas (R . E llis, 1994). A n
important in dex of nativelike com petence is that the lear ner u ses idiom s ¯ uently. S o
langu age learn ing involves lear ning sequences o f w ords (frequent collocation s, phrases,
an d idiom s), as w ell as sequences w ithin w ords. Fo r present purposes, su ch collocations
can sim ply be viewed as b ig words, an d the role of working m em ory in lear ning such
structures is the sam e as that for w ords. Just as repetitio n aided the co nsolidation of Welsh
vocabulary in th e present experim ent, so it d id the lo ng-ter m acquisitio n of Welsh
phrases.
 246 E LL IS A N D S IN C LA IR

W orking M em ory in the A cquisition of G ram m ar

But word sequences have characteristic structures all their ow n, an d the abstraction of
these regularities is the acquisitio n of gram m ar. T here are good reaso ns to consider that
sequence infor m atio n is central to the acquisition of w ord gr am m atical class. S lob in
(1973) proposed that ``p aying attention to the order of w ords an d m orph em es’ ’ is one
of th e m ost general of children’ s ``operating principles’ ’ w h en dealing w ith their native
langu age, an d w ord order is sim ilarly o ne of the four cues to part of speech in the Bates
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an d M acW hinney (1981) C om petitio n M odel of FL pro cessing. M ore recently, To m asello
(1992) has proposed that young ch ildren’ s early verb s an d relatio nal ter m s are individua l
islands of org an izatio n in an otherw ise unorgan iz ed g ram m atical system : In the early
stages, the child lear ns about argu m ents an d syn tactic m arkings o n a v erb-by-verb basis,
an d ordering patter ns an d m orph ological m arkers lear ned for one verb do not imm ediately
generalize to other verbs. Positional an alysis of each verb island requires lo ng-ter m
representations of that verb ’ s collocations, an d thus these accounts of gram m ar acquisi-
tion posit vast am ounts of lo ng -ter m know ledge of w ord seq uences. O nly later are syntag-
m atic cate gories for m ed by abstracting re gularities from this large dataset in co nju nctio n
w ith m orphological m arker cues (at least in case-m arking languages). C om putatio nal
accounts of the lear ning of w ord class from positio nal an alysis of natural language can
be foun d in K iss (1973), Sam pso n (1987), C har niak (1993), an d Finch an d C hater (1994).
T he present experiment has show n that short-term repetitio n of FL utteran ces allow s
the consolid ation of lo ng-ter m representations of w ords an d word sequences. Su bjects
co uld produce th ese for m s better as a result, an d they ap p eared to b e m ore nativelike in
that they could accurately produce g ram m atical utter ances as lex icalized phrases. T he
stock of lexicaliz ed phrases that they so acquired also allow ed them to develop superior
ex plicit, m etacognitive know ledge about th e underlying rule structure.
T heories of im plicit acq uisition of g ram m ar from au tom atic an alysis of word order in a
stock of exem plars in LT M w ould also hold that these w ord sequences should allow the
repetitio n subjects a better im plicit know ledge of the Welsh soft-m utation. Yet they
seem ed to h ave no sign i® can t advan tage in m aking fast, accurate judgem ents of g ram m ati-
cality. W hy m ight this be? Perhap s the g ram m aticality tasks are very dif® cult because they
ask subjects to distinguish b etw een the correct for m an d the m ost likely error, an d also
because the lear ners’ focus h as b een on understanding an d tran slation rather than on for m
(R . E llis, 1994; L ong, 1991). Fu rther m ore, even though rehearsal extended the repetitio n
su bjects’ stock of phrases, this w as a very short experiment com pared w ith the experience
of m illions of utteran ces that underpin s ¯ uent attainm ent of natural-language g ram m ar.
T he work of Bower m an (1976), M archm an an d Bates (1994), an d Tom asello (1992)
dem o nstrates that a ``critical m ass’ ’ of individu al ``islands of organ ization’ ’ for each
word needs to be acquired before patter ns of org an ization can be ab stracted from them .

C o nclusio n
We have argued that m uch of language lear ning is the acq uisition of m em orized seq uences
of language (for vocabulary, the pho nolo gical units of lang uage an d their phon otactic
sequences; for discou rse, the lexical units of language an d th eir sequences in clauses
 A C Q U IS IT IO N O F V O C A B U L A R Y A N D S Y N T A X 247

an d collocatio ns), an d w e have dem o nstrated the involvem ent of w orking m em ory, par-
ticularly the short-ter m ph onological store, in this lear ning process. Short-ter m repre-
sentation an d rehear sal allow s the eventual establishm ent of lon g-ter m sequence
inform ation for language. T h ere are, in tu rn , reciprocal interactions between long-ter m
sequence rep resentations an d short-ter m sto rage w h ereby lo ng-ter m sequence infor m a-
tion allow s the chunking o f w orking m em ory co ntents that accord w ith these co nsolidated
patter ns, thus extending the sp an of short-ter m storage for chu nkable m aterials. T he
m ore the long-ter m storage of frequent language sequences, the m ore easily can they
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serve as labels for m ean ing reference. T he m ore au tom atic their access, the m ore ¯ u ent is
the resultant language use, concom itantly freeing attentional resources for an alysis of the
m ean ing of the m essage, either for com preh ension or for prod uction planning. Finally, it
is this lo ng-ter m know ledge base of w ord seq uences th at ser ves as the database for the
acq uisition of language g ram m ar. A full account of th is constructivist view of lan guage
acq uisition is presented in E llis (in press).
T he follow ing q uestions rem ain:
1. H ow are g ram m atical regularities abstracted from lo ng-ter m know ledge of word
sequences? T his obviously depends o n various aspects of the g ram m atical regularity being
co nsidered , such as its con sistenc y, the typ e/token ratio of its ex em plars, its salience, an d
the d egree of separation of th e relevan t d ependencies. T his questio n is cur rently the focus
of a large num ber of research studies concer ning the im plicit lear ning of arti® cial an d
natural languages both by hum an subjects an d by connectionist system s (see, e.g., review s
in E llis, 1994).
2. H ow d oes the length of the seq uence (eith er as the w indow th at w orking m em ory
gives for on-line an alysis, or as the length of lear ned collocation / p hrase sequ ence in
LT M ) affect the abstraction of different types of g ram m atical regularity? Work has just
begun on these issues (e.g. N ew port, 1990; E lm an , 1993), an d it is our research priority.
Such question s put the acq uisition of g ram m ar, both im plicit an d explicit, native,
second, an d foreign languages, ® r m ly w ith in the d evelopm ental an d com putatio nal
research arena of w orking m em ory. A lthough acquired short-ter m m em ory d e® cits
have su rprisin gly little effect on language use (Vallar & S hallice, 1990), it is becom ing
increasingly clear that individual differences in ST M an d w orking m em ory can have
profound effects on language a cquisition.

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M a nuscript receiv ed 28 October 199 4

Accepted revision received 10 August 199 5
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A P PE N D IX 1
T h e W els h U ttera n c e s a n d T h e ir E n g lis h tra n s la tio n s

cefn back ble ma e cefn w here is a back ei gefn o his back

ceg m ou th ble ma e ceg w here is a m ou th ei geg o his mou th
da nt tooth ble ma e da nt w here is a tooth ei dda nt o his tooth
diod drin k ble ma e diod w here is a drink ei ddiod o his drink
ma b son ble ma e ma b w here is a son ei fa b o his son
meddwl m in d ble ma e meddwl w here is a m in d ei feddwl o his min d
pen head ble ma e pen w here is a head ei ben o his head
pres m oney ble ma e pres w here is m on ey ei bres o his mo ney
ta fod ton gue ble ma e ta fod w here is a tongue ei da fod o his tongu e
trwyn nose ble ma e trwy n w here is a nose ei drwyn o his nose