The role of input frequency and semantic transparency in the acquisition of verb meaning: Evidence from placement verbs in Tamil and Dutch
Narasimhan, Bhuvana and Gullberg, Marianne LU
(2011)
In Journal of Child Language
38(3).
p.504-532
- Abstract
- We investigate how Tamil- and Dutch-speaking adults and 4- to-5-year-old children use caused posture verbs (‘lay/stand a bottle on a table’) to label placement events in which objects are oriented vertically or horizontally. Tamil caused posture verbs consist of morphemes that individually label the causal and result subevents (nikka veyyii ‘make stand’; paDka veyyii ‘make lie’), occurring in situational and discourse contexts where object orientation is at issue. Dutch caused posture verbs are less semantically transparent: they are monomorphemic (zetten ‘set/stand’; leggen ‘lay’), often occurring in contexts where factors other than object orientation determine use. Caused posture verbs occur rarely in Tamil input corpora; in Dutch... (More)
- We investigate how Tamil- and Dutch-speaking adults and 4- to-5-year-old children use caused posture verbs (‘lay/stand a bottle on a table’) to label placement events in which objects are oriented vertically or horizontally. Tamil caused posture verbs consist of morphemes that individually label the causal and result subevents (nikka veyyii ‘make stand’; paDka veyyii ‘make lie’), occurring in situational and discourse contexts where object orientation is at issue. Dutch caused posture verbs are less semantically transparent: they are monomorphemic (zetten ‘set/stand’; leggen ‘lay’), often occurring in contexts where factors other than object orientation determine use. Caused posture verbs occur rarely in Tamil input corpora; in Dutch input, they are used frequently. Elicited production data reveal that Tamil four-year-olds use infrequent placement verbs appropriately whereas Dutch children use highfrequency placement verbs inappropriately even at age five. Semantic transparency exerts a stronger influence than input frequency in constraining children’s verb meaning acquisition. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1578853
- author
- Narasimhan, Bhuvana
and Gullberg, Marianne
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- semantic transparency, input frequency, placement events, child language acquisition, caused posture verbs, Tamil, Dutch
- in
- Journal of Child Language
- volume
- 38
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 504 - 532
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000290111800003
- scopus:79956072155
- pmid:20609281
- ISSN
- 1469-7602
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0305000910000164
- project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Humanities Lab (015101200), Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
- id
- ab9ab859-cf12-4107-8a5e-67701c2f4a16 (old id 1578853)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:29:06
- date last changed
- 2023-11-09 22:14:16
@article{ab9ab859-cf12-4107-8a5e-67701c2f4a16,
abstract = {{We investigate how Tamil- and Dutch-speaking adults and 4- to-5-year-old children use caused posture verbs (‘lay/stand a bottle on a table’) to label placement events in which objects are oriented vertically or horizontally. Tamil caused posture verbs consist of morphemes that individually label the causal and result subevents (nikka veyyii ‘make stand’; paDka veyyii ‘make lie’), occurring in situational and discourse contexts where object orientation is at issue. Dutch caused posture verbs are less semantically transparent: they are monomorphemic (zetten ‘set/stand’; leggen ‘lay’), often occurring in contexts where factors other than object orientation determine use. Caused posture verbs occur rarely in Tamil input corpora; in Dutch input, they are used frequently. Elicited production data reveal that Tamil four-year-olds use infrequent placement verbs appropriately whereas Dutch children use highfrequency placement verbs inappropriately even at age five. Semantic transparency exerts a stronger influence than input frequency in constraining children’s verb meaning acquisition.}},
author = {{Narasimhan, Bhuvana and Gullberg, Marianne}},
issn = {{1469-7602}},
keywords = {{semantic transparency; input frequency; placement events; child language acquisition; caused posture verbs; Tamil; Dutch}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{504--532}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{Journal of Child Language}},
title = {{The role of input frequency and semantic transparency in the acquisition of verb meaning: Evidence from placement verbs in Tamil and Dutch}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/1879620/3912707.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1017/S0305000910000164}},
volume = {{38}},
year = {{2011}},
}