Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T19:59:23.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Verb argument structure acquisition in young children: defining a role for discourse*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2010

LETITIA R. NAIGLES  and
ASHLEY MALTEMPO
LETITIA R. NAIGLES*
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
ASHLEY MALTEMPO
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
*
Address for correspondence: Letitia R. Naigles, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1020. e-mail: letitia.naigles@uconn.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two-, three- and four-year-old English learners enacted sentences that were missing a direct object (e.g. *The zebra brings.). Previous work has indicated that preschoolers faced with such ungrammatical sentences consistently alter the usual meaning of the verb to fit the syntactic frame (enacting ‘zebra comes’); older children are more likely to repair the syntax to fit the meaning of the verb (enacting ‘zebra brings something’; Naigles, Gleitman & Gleitman, 1993). We investigated whether young children performed more repairs if an informative context preceded the ungrammatical sentences. Test sentences were preceded by short vignettes that created a relationship between three characters. Children repaired more sentences than had been found previously; however, older preschoolers also repaired significantly more frequently than younger preschoolers. Discourse context thus seems relevant to the acquisition of verb argument structure, but is not the sole source of information.

Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , June 2011 , pp. 662 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by the University Scholar Program at the University of Connecticut, and by the NICHD (R01 HD048662). We are grateful to Megan Kravitz, Rebecca Richardson and Amanda Tchernotzkas for their assistance in data collection, and to Dr Ji-Young Kim for helpful commentary.

References

REFERENCES

Allen, S. (2007). Interacting pragmatic influences on children's argument realization. In Bowerman, M. & Brown, P. (eds), Crosslinguistic perspectives on argument structure: Implications for learnability, 191–210. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Allen, S. (2009). The acquisition of verb argument structure. In Bavin, E. (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of child language, 217–36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, S. & Schroder, H. (2003). Preferred argument structure in early Inuktitut spontaneous speech data. In Du Bois, J., Kumpf, L. & Ashby, W. (eds), Preferred argument structure: Grammar as architecture for function, 301–338. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braine, M., Brody, R., Fisch, S., Weisberger, M. & Blum, M. (1990). Can children use a verb without exposure to its argument structure? Journal of Child Language 17, 313–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks, P. & Tomasello, M. (1999). How young children constrain their argument structure constructions. Language 75, 720–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, J. (2003). Argument structure: Grammar in use. In Du Bois, J., Kumpf, L. & Ashby, W. (eds), Preferred argument structure: Grammar as architecture for function, 11–60. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Göksun, T., Küntay, A. & Naigles, L. (2008). Turkish children use morphosyntax in extending verb meaning. Journal of Child Language 35, 291–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, A. (2006). Constructions at work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, J. & Naigles, L. (2008). Mandarin learners use syntactic bootstrapping in verb acquisition. Cognition 106, 1028–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lidz, J., Gleitman, H. & Gleitman, L. (2003). Understanding how input matters: The footprint of universal grammar on verb learning. Cognition 87, 151–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matthews, D., Lieven, E., Theakston, A. & Tomasello, M. (2006). The effect of perceptual availability and prior discourse on young children's use of referring expressions. Applied Psycholinguistics 27, 403–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naigles, L., Fowler, A. & Helm, A. (1992). Developmental changes in the construction of verb meanings. Cognitive Development 7, 403–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naigles, L., Fowler, A. & Helm, A. (1995). Syntactic bootstrapping from start to finish, with special reference to Down Syndrome. In Tomasello, M. & Merriman, W. (eds), Beyond names for things: Young children's acquisition of verbs, 299–330. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Naigles, L., Gleitman, H. & Gleitman, L. R. (1993). Acquiring the components of verb meaning from syntactic evidence. In Dromi, E. (ed.), Language and cognition: A Developmental Perspective, 104–140. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Naigles, L. R., Hoff, E. & Vear, D. (2009). Flexibility in early verb use: Evidence from a multiple-n diary study. Monographs for the Society for Research in Child Development 74(2) (Serial No. 293).Google ScholarPubMed
Naigles, L., Küntay, A., Göksun, T. & Lee, J. (2006). Language-specific properties influence children's acquisition of argument structure. In Bamman, D., Magnitskaia, T. & Zaller, C. (eds), BUCLD 30: Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 388–98. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Perez-Leroux, A. T., Pirvulescu, M. & Roberge, Y. (2008). Null objects in child language: Syntax and the lexicon. Lingua 118, 370–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, S. (1989). Learnability and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rall, J. & Harris, P. (2000). In Cinderella's slippers? Story comprehension from the protagonist's point of view. Developmental Psychology 36, 202–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ratitamkul, T. & Goldberg, A. (2006). Argument structure can be inferred from discourse. Poster presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, J. (2000). The acquisition of direct object scrambling and clitic placement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A. & Paoli, S. (2004). Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax–pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English–Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7, 183–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skarabela, B. (2007). Signs of early social cognition in children's syntax: The case of joint attention in argument realization in child Inuktitut. Lingua 117, 1837–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, H. & Fisher, C. (2007). Discourse prominence effects on 2·5-year-old children's interpretations of pronouns. Lingua 117, 1959–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (1992). First verbs: A case study of early grammatical development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valian, V., Prasada, S. & Scarpa, J. (2006). Direct object predictability: Effects on young children's imitation of sentences. Journal of Child Language 33, 247–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar