ARE PROTOTYPICAL SEMANTIC CONCEPTS ACQUIRED FIRST?
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first language acquisition, verb production, reflexive verbs, reciprocal verbs, anti-causative verbs, semantic concepts, semantic-syntactic mapping
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Abstract
The aim of the present research was to examine the production of three types of se-verbs at different stages of first language acquisition of Serbian. The verbs tested were true reflexive (e.g. oblačiti se ‘dress oneself’), true reciprocal (e.g. grliti se ‘hug each other’), and anti-causative verbs (e.g. otvoriti se ‘open’). None of the tested types is syntactically simple, because they do not involve a canonical linking of semantic roles and syntactic functions (agent-subject and patient-object). However, it was expected that true reflexive verbs would be acquired before true reciprocal and anti-causative verbs, because they are less complex. They are the only type that mirrors prototypical semantic concepts, although the agent and patient theta-roles are both mapped onto the subject. A total of sixty subjects belonging to three age groups (31-42, 43-55, 56-68 months-twenty participants in each group) took part in the research. The data collection technique was a verb elicitation task. The children were asked to name the activities presented in the pictures. The number of tested verbs was the same for each verb type. The initial hypothesis was confirmed, since the production of true reflexive verbs was the most accurate across groups.
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Ilić Matijević, N. D. ARE PROTOTYPICAL SEMANTIC CONCEPTS ACQUIRED FIRST?. ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, 45(5), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.19090/gff.2020.5.75-94
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References
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Siloni, T. (2008). The syntax of reciprocal verbs: An overview. In: König, E.–Gast, V. (eds.) (2008). Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 451–498.
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Stanojčič, Ž.–Popović, Lj. (2002). Gramatika srpskog jezika. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva.
Stevanović, M. (1954). Povratni glagoli. Književnost i jezik u školi, 5, 303–316.
Verrips, M. (2000). Passives and implicit arguments in child language. In: Howell, S. C.–Fish, S.A. & Keith-Lucas, T. (eds.) (2000). Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 749–760.
Arsenijević, N. (2011). Prilog proučavanju povratnih glagola u srpskom jeziku. Zbornik Matice srpske za filologiju i lingvistiku, LIV(1), 115–135.
Bates, D.–Mächler, M.–Bolker, B.–Walker, S.–Bojesen, R.–Singmann, H. & Fox, J. (2019). lme4: Linear Mixed-Effects Models using 'Eigen' and S4. R package version 1.1-21.
Borer, H.–Wexler, K. (1987). The maturation of syntax. In: Roeper, T.–Williams, E. (eds.) (1987). Parameter Setting. Dordrecht: Reidel. 23–172.
Bowerman, M. (1991). When a patient is the subject: sorting out passives, anti-causatives, and middles in the acquisition of English. Paper presented at the symposium on Voice, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA.
Brooks, P.–Tomasello, M. (1999). How children constrain their argument structure constructions. Language, 75, 720–738.
Costa, J.–Friedmann, N. (2012). Children acquire unaccusatives and A-movement very early. In: Everaert, M.–Marelj, M. & Siloni, T. (eds.) (2012). The theta system: Argument structure at the interface. Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 37. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 354–378.
Eisenbeiss, S. (2010). Using production methods in language acquisition research. In: Blom, E.–Unsworth, S. (eds.) (2010). Experimental methods in language acquistion research. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. 11–34.
Hopper, P. J.–Thompson, S. A. (1980). Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language, 56, 251–299.
Ivić, M. (1961/62). Jedan problem slovenske sintagmatike osvetljen transformacionim metodom (gramatička uloga morfeme se u srpskohrvatskom jeziku). Južnoslovenski filolog, 25, 137–148.
Kuznetsova, A.–Brockhoff, P.–Bojesen, R. & Jensen, S. (2019). lmerTest: Tests in Linear Mixed Effects Models. R package version 3.1–1.
Ljubešić, N. –Klubička, F. (2016). The Serbian web corpus srWaC. Ljubljana: Jožef Stefan Institute.
Miličević, M. (2015). Između neakuzativnosti i neergativnosti: Povratno, uzajamno-povratno i autokauzativno se. In: Arsenijević, B.–Halupka-Rešetar, S. (eds.) (2015). Srpski jezik u savremenoj lingvističkoj teoriji. Niš: Filozofski fakultet. 175–192.
Pavlinušić, E.–Kelić, M. (2011). Utjecaj poucavanja na ovladanost povratnim glagolima u hrvatskome kao inome jeziku. LAHOR, 11, 5–22.
Pinker, S. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pinker, S. (1989). Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Pinker, S. (1994). How Could a Child Use Verb Syntax to Learn Verb Semantics? Lingua, 92, 377–410.
R Core Team (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
Rákosi, Gy. (2008). The inherently reflexive and the inherently reciprocal predicate in Hungarian: Each to their own argument structure. In: König, E.–Gast, V. (eds.) (2008). Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 411–450.
Reinhart, T.–Siloni, T. (2003). Thematic Arity Operations and Parametric Variations. OTS working papers in linguistics, TL-03-001, University of Utrecht.
Reinhart, T.–Siloni, T. (2005). The lexicon–syntax parameter: reflexivization and other arity operations, Linguistic Inquiry, 36 (3), 389–436.
Roeper, T. (1987). Implicit arguments and the head-complement relation. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, 267–310.
Samardžić, T. (2006). Reč se u argumentskoj strukturi ditranzitivnih glagola. Naučni sastanak slavista u Vukove dane, 35(1), 179–193.
Siloni, T. (2008). The syntax of reciprocal verbs: An overview. In: König, E.–Gast, V. (eds.) (2008). Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 451–498.
Snyder, W.–Hyams, N. & Crisma, P. (1995). Romance Auxiliary Selection with Reflexive Clitics: Evidence of early knowledge of Unaccusativity. In: Clark, E. (eds.) (1995). Proceedings of Child Language Research Forum 26. Stanford, CA: CSLI.
Stanojčič, Ž.–Popović, Lj. (2002). Gramatika srpskog jezika. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva.
Stevanović, M. (1954). Povratni glagoli. Književnost i jezik u školi, 5, 303–316.
Verrips, M. (2000). Passives and implicit arguments in child language. In: Howell, S. C.–Fish, S.A. & Keith-Lucas, T. (eds.) (2000). Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 749–760.