The National Science Foundation (NSF) Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) program (CFDA 47.075) has awarded a $220,100 project grant to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to examine how infants develop representations of non-local syntactic dependencies in language. The 3-year project aims to precisely identify when infants become aware of the complementary distribution between object wh-phrases and local objects of verbs, which reflects their ability to represent long-distance grammatical dependencies. This research will establish an empirical foundation for understanding the initial stages of syntactic learning in early child development. The project also includes educational components such as training opportunities in language sciences research and outreach to local families and high school students from underrepresented backgrounds. The award began on September 1, 2024 and is scheduled for completion by August 31, 2027.
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