Pub Date : 2024-09-06DOI: 10.1177/01427237241276902
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Does the processing advantage of formulaic language persist in its nonadjacent forms? Evidence from Chinese collocation processing in children”","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/01427237241276902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241276902","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142178014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-30DOI: 10.1177/01427237241272523
Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum, Bahaa’ Makhoul
Reading acquisition in Arabic presents unique challenges, notably due to its complex morphological structure and the diglossic nature of the language. The discrepancy between written (Modern Standard) and spoken Arabic poses significant barriers for learners, particularly in decoding morphologically complex words. This study explored the role of inflectional morphology in reading comprehension among 173 Arabic-speaking second graders from a low SES background, where these challenges are most evident. These relations were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade, enabling the tracking of correlations between change in reading comprehension score and types of inflectional awareness throughout the year. Whereas findings demonstrated a positive correlation between inflectional awareness, phonological decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension at the beginning of the year, only inflectional awareness was correlated with reading comprehension at the end of the year. Regression results showed that initial inflectional awareness uniquely explained 12% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of the year. In addition, readers who improved their reading comprehension throughout the year also improved their inflectional awareness and showed reading comprehension comparable to those who started high in reading comprehension. Results are discussed in accordance with previous research and the unique features of Arabic.
{"title":"Inflectional morphology and reading comprehension in low SES Arabic-speaking second graders","authors":"Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum, Bahaa’ Makhoul","doi":"10.1177/01427237241272523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241272523","url":null,"abstract":"Reading acquisition in Arabic presents unique challenges, notably due to its complex morphological structure and the diglossic nature of the language. The discrepancy between written (Modern Standard) and spoken Arabic poses significant barriers for learners, particularly in decoding morphologically complex words. This study explored the role of inflectional morphology in reading comprehension among 173 Arabic-speaking second graders from a low SES background, where these challenges are most evident. These relations were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade, enabling the tracking of correlations between change in reading comprehension score and types of inflectional awareness throughout the year. Whereas findings demonstrated a positive correlation between inflectional awareness, phonological decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension at the beginning of the year, only inflectional awareness was correlated with reading comprehension at the end of the year. Regression results showed that initial inflectional awareness uniquely explained 12% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of the year. In addition, readers who improved their reading comprehension throughout the year also improved their inflectional awareness and showed reading comprehension comparable to those who started high in reading comprehension. Results are discussed in accordance with previous research and the unique features of Arabic.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142178012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-02DOI: 10.1177/01427237241274419
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Establishing Guidelines for MLU measurement in an agglutinating language: An illustration of Georgian”","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/01427237241274419","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241274419","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141882421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The objective of this study was to examine the development of derivational morphological structures in the productive language of Kuwaiti Arabic (KA)-speaking children. Participants were 512 typically developing Kuwaiti children aged 3;0 years to 7;11 years (243 boys and 269 girls). Five age groups at 1-year intervals were tested; each group was divided into four sub-groups at 3-month intervals. The children were examined using a tool designed to assess structures specific to the KA dialect, and they were assessed by trained research assistants at their nurseries and public schools. There were clear developmental trajectories in the derivational morphological structures studied in KA-speaking children across the five age groups. Results showed that KA-speaking children have not reached mastery level in most of the structures examined in this study. Among the two types of derivations examined, nominal derivations emerged later than verb derivations. Error analysis showed that most errors were morphological, affecting mainly the root. The results of this study enhance our knowledge of early language development in Arabic by showing that nominal derivations develop later than verb derivations. The results are discussed in light of previous cross-linguistic studies, which also found a similar trajectory in terms of morphological development. Further, Arabic morphological theory, as well as implications for practice and the need for further research, is discussed.
本研究旨在考察科威特阿拉伯语(KA)儿童生产语言中派生形态结构的发展情况。研究对象是 512 名发育正常的科威特儿童,年龄从 3.0 岁到 7.11 岁(其中男孩 243 名,女孩 269 名)。测试分为五个年龄组,每组间隔 1 年;每组又分为四个子组,每组间隔 3 个月。研究人员在托儿所和公立学校对这些儿童进行了评估,并使用了一种专门用于评估 KA 方言特有结构的工具。在五个年龄组中,讲卡拉语的儿童在派生形态结构方面有明显的发展轨迹。研究结果表明,说 KA 语的儿童对本研究中的大多数结构都没有达到熟练掌握的水平。在所研究的两类派生词中,名词派生词的出现晚于动词派生词。错误分析表明,大多数错误是形态错误,主要影响词根。本研究的结果表明,名词性派生比动词性派生出现得晚,从而增进了我们对阿拉伯语早期语言发展的了解。以往的跨语言研究也发现了类似的形态发展轨迹,本研究结合这些研究结果进行了讨论。此外,还讨论了阿拉伯语形态学理论、对实践的影响以及进一步研究的必要性。
{"title":"Development of derivational morphology in Kuwaiti Arabic-speaking children","authors":"Nailah Al-Sulaihim, Fauzia Abdalla, Abdessattar Mahfoudhi, Saleh Shaalan","doi":"10.1177/01427237241261793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241261793","url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this study was to examine the development of derivational morphological structures in the productive language of Kuwaiti Arabic (KA)-speaking children. Participants were 512 typically developing Kuwaiti children aged 3;0 years to 7;11 years (243 boys and 269 girls). Five age groups at 1-year intervals were tested; each group was divided into four sub-groups at 3-month intervals. The children were examined using a tool designed to assess structures specific to the KA dialect, and they were assessed by trained research assistants at their nurseries and public schools. There were clear developmental trajectories in the derivational morphological structures studied in KA-speaking children across the five age groups. Results showed that KA-speaking children have not reached mastery level in most of the structures examined in this study. Among the two types of derivations examined, nominal derivations emerged later than verb derivations. Error analysis showed that most errors were morphological, affecting mainly the root. The results of this study enhance our knowledge of early language development in Arabic by showing that nominal derivations develop later than verb derivations. The results are discussed in light of previous cross-linguistic studies, which also found a similar trajectory in terms of morphological development. Further, Arabic morphological theory, as well as implications for practice and the need for further research, is discussed.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141776781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-23DOI: 10.1177/01427237241261423
Daniel Fobi
{"title":"Book Review: Zarchy, R. M. & Geer, L. C., A family-centered signed language curriculum to support deaf children’s language acquisition","authors":"Daniel Fobi","doi":"10.1177/01427237241261423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241261423","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141776784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-28DOI: 10.1177/01427237241252873
Anna Gavarró, Alejandra Keidel
This study delves into the syntactic parsing abilities of children and infants exposed to Catalan as their first language. Focusing first on ages 3 to 6, we conducted two sentence-picture matching tasks. In experiment 1, 3 to 4-year-old children failed in identifying singular third-person subjects within null-subject sentences, although they performed above chance in all other scenarios, including plural third-person subjects and sentences with overt full DP subjects. This is reminiscent of the results of Pérez-Leroux for Spanish. In experiment 2, with the same design but involving numeral distractors, children’s performance was above chance level across all conditions from age 3 to 4. Then, in experiment 3, we moved to a younger age range with the help of eye-tracking techniques. The findings revealed that infants at 22 months had the ability to parse subject–verb agreement in sentences with third-person null subjects, and at 19 months there was evidence of parsing for third-person plural null subjects. These findings are inconsistent with the perception of children grappling with syntactic agreement computation. We argue that instances of underperformance in subject–verb agreement parsing identified in the literature often stem from task-related and pragmatic issues rather than core syntactic delay. If so, the putative asymmetry between early production of verbal inflection and late comprehension disappears; rather, the results suggest early establishment of matching operations and mastery of language-specific agreement properties before production starts.
{"title":"Subject–verb agreement: Three experiments on Catalan","authors":"Anna Gavarró, Alejandra Keidel","doi":"10.1177/01427237241252873","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241252873","url":null,"abstract":"This study delves into the syntactic parsing abilities of children and infants exposed to Catalan as their first language. Focusing first on ages 3 to 6, we conducted two sentence-picture matching tasks. In experiment 1, 3 to 4-year-old children failed in identifying singular third-person subjects within null-subject sentences, although they performed above chance in all other scenarios, including plural third-person subjects and sentences with overt full DP subjects. This is reminiscent of the results of Pérez-Leroux for Spanish. In experiment 2, with the same design but involving numeral distractors, children’s performance was above chance level across all conditions from age 3 to 4. Then, in experiment 3, we moved to a younger age range with the help of eye-tracking techniques. The findings revealed that infants at 22 months had the ability to parse subject–verb agreement in sentences with third-person null subjects, and at 19 months there was evidence of parsing for third-person plural null subjects. These findings are inconsistent with the perception of children grappling with syntactic agreement computation. We argue that instances of underperformance in subject–verb agreement parsing identified in the literature often stem from task-related and pragmatic issues rather than core syntactic delay. If so, the putative asymmetry between early production of verbal inflection and late comprehension disappears; rather, the results suggest early establishment of matching operations and mastery of language-specific agreement properties before production starts.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-28DOI: 10.1177/01427237241253315
Jaime Inocencio Chi Pech
This article uses cognitive measures previously developed within linguistic relativity research to explore the thinking patterns of Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children in the Yucatan peninsula. These measures were designed to detect cognitive patterns associated with specific language patterns. Here, these measures are used to test whether 12 Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children aged 9–11 years old differ cognitively from a similar sample of monolingual Maya children (nine Yucatec Maya-speaking and three Spanish-speaking). The study assesses cognitive associations for two language domains: number marking, a structure-based contrast, and spatial frames of reference, a usage-based contrast. For both number marking and spatial frames of reference, both bilingual and monolingual children provided cognitive responses more like Yucatec Maya monolingual speakers than like Spanish monolinguals. The study also assessed whether the results were affected by factors that have emerged in other studies of bilingual cognition: language status, social community, and language of assessment (‘language mode’). For number marking, there was an effect of the language of assessment, but not of social community or language status. For spatial frames of reference, there were effects of social community and language status but not of the language of assessment. Overall, the results suggest that Yucatec Maya's cognitive habits may continue for some time during the shift from Yucatec Maya monolingualism to bilingualism but with some sensitivity to these other factors. This study offers a positive outlook for efforts to maintain and revitalize the Yucatec Maya language in the Yucatan peninsula.
{"title":"Using cognitive measures from linguistic relativity research to assess thinking in Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children","authors":"Jaime Inocencio Chi Pech","doi":"10.1177/01427237241253315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241253315","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses cognitive measures previously developed within linguistic relativity research to explore the thinking patterns of Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children in the Yucatan peninsula. These measures were designed to detect cognitive patterns associated with specific language patterns. Here, these measures are used to test whether 12 Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children aged 9–11 years old differ cognitively from a similar sample of monolingual Maya children (nine Yucatec Maya-speaking and three Spanish-speaking). The study assesses cognitive associations for two language domains: number marking, a structure-based contrast, and spatial frames of reference, a usage-based contrast. For both number marking and spatial frames of reference, both bilingual and monolingual children provided cognitive responses more like Yucatec Maya monolingual speakers than like Spanish monolinguals. The study also assessed whether the results were affected by factors that have emerged in other studies of bilingual cognition: language status, social community, and language of assessment (‘language mode’). For number marking, there was an effect of the language of assessment, but not of social community or language status. For spatial frames of reference, there were effects of social community and language status but not of the language of assessment. Overall, the results suggest that Yucatec Maya's cognitive habits may continue for some time during the shift from Yucatec Maya monolingualism to bilingualism but with some sensitivity to these other factors. This study offers a positive outlook for efforts to maintain and revitalize the Yucatec Maya language in the Yucatan peninsula.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores the applicability of mean length of utterance (MLU) as a language assessment measure for Georgian child language, as to-date, Georgian, a morphologically rich language with numerous inflectional categories, experiences an extensive lack of instruments for early language assessment. To this end, a set of guidelines for calculating Georgian MLU was developed based on the analysis of a longitudinal corpus of two Georgian-speaking children aged 12–35 months. This was supported by the findings of previous studies on Georgian acquisition. Furthermore, the guidelines were used to compare MLU in morphemes (MLU-m) with MLU in words (MLU-w) and MLU in syllables (MLU-s) to determine the most suitable method for assessing morphological development in Georgian. These results indicate that MLU-m closely aligns with the description of language development in Georgian children. MLU-s is useful for demonstrating early linguistic development, while MLU-w correlates with age but does not capture changes within words over time. Further testing on a larger corpus is needed to refine the guidelines for more accurate assessment of Georgian-speaking children.
{"title":"Establishing guidelines for MLU measurement in an agglutinating language: An illustration of Georgian","authors":"Tinatin Tchintcharauli, Nino Tsintsadze, Teona Damenia, Tamar Kalkhitashvili, Nino Doborjginidze, Sigal Uziel-Karl","doi":"10.1177/01427237241247930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241247930","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the applicability of mean length of utterance (MLU) as a language assessment measure for Georgian child language, as to-date, Georgian, a morphologically rich language with numerous inflectional categories, experiences an extensive lack of instruments for early language assessment. To this end, a set of guidelines for calculating Georgian MLU was developed based on the analysis of a longitudinal corpus of two Georgian-speaking children aged 12–35 months. This was supported by the findings of previous studies on Georgian acquisition. Furthermore, the guidelines were used to compare MLU in morphemes (MLU-m) with MLU in words (MLU-w) and MLU in syllables (MLU-s) to determine the most suitable method for assessing morphological development in Georgian. These results indicate that MLU-m closely aligns with the description of language development in Georgian children. MLU-s is useful for demonstrating early linguistic development, while MLU-w correlates with age but does not capture changes within words over time. Further testing on a larger corpus is needed to refine the guidelines for more accurate assessment of Georgian-speaking children.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140836103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-09DOI: 10.1177/01427237241232741
Clifton Pye
The Mayan language Mam uses complex predicates to express events. Complex predicates map multiple semantic elements onto a single word, and consequently have a blend of lexical and phrasal features. The chameleon-like nature of complex predicates provides a window on children’s ability to express phrasal combinations at the one-word stage of language development. The ubiquity of complex predicates in the adult language insures that children will produce complex predicates as some of their first words. The verb complex in Mam has obligatory inflections for aspect, person, and to a degree direction. The inflections vary in degree of attachment between syllable segments, affixes, and clitics. Inflections with vowels are phonologically free, while inflections without vowels attach as either syllable segments or affixes. The Mam verb complex requires the addition of a phrasal layer to prosodic models of lexical acquisition. The paper used this extended version of prosodic theory to make five predictions for the acquisition of the verb complex. The paper analyzes production data for three children between 2;0 and 2;8 acquiring the northern variety of Mam spoken in San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The children’s production data for both the intransitive and transitive verb complexes support all five predictions to some degree. The children produced prefixes more frequently on vowel-initial stems than on consonant-initial stems, and they produced imperative suffixes more frequently than prefixes on consonant-initial stems. The children exhibited developmental differences and produced phrasal contractions that the prosodic theory did not predict. The results underline the need to integrate prosody into models of morphosyntactic development, and highlight the significance of complex predicates for theories of language acquisition.
{"title":"A prosodic account of complex predicate acquisition in Mam: A Mayan language","authors":"Clifton Pye","doi":"10.1177/01427237241232741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241232741","url":null,"abstract":"The Mayan language Mam uses complex predicates to express events. Complex predicates map multiple semantic elements onto a single word, and consequently have a blend of lexical and phrasal features. The chameleon-like nature of complex predicates provides a window on children’s ability to express phrasal combinations at the one-word stage of language development. The ubiquity of complex predicates in the adult language insures that children will produce complex predicates as some of their first words. The verb complex in Mam has obligatory inflections for aspect, person, and to a degree direction. The inflections vary in degree of attachment between syllable segments, affixes, and clitics. Inflections with vowels are phonologically free, while inflections without vowels attach as either syllable segments or affixes. The Mam verb complex requires the addition of a phrasal layer to prosodic models of lexical acquisition. The paper used this extended version of prosodic theory to make five predictions for the acquisition of the verb complex. The paper analyzes production data for three children between 2;0 and 2;8 acquiring the northern variety of Mam spoken in San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The children’s production data for both the intransitive and transitive verb complexes support all five predictions to some degree. The children produced prefixes more frequently on vowel-initial stems than on consonant-initial stems, and they produced imperative suffixes more frequently than prefixes on consonant-initial stems. The children exhibited developmental differences and produced phrasal contractions that the prosodic theory did not predict. The results underline the need to integrate prosody into models of morphosyntactic development, and highlight the significance of complex predicates for theories of language acquisition.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"135 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140073495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-05DOI: 10.1177/01427237241228693
Pedro Mateo Pedro
This article evaluates the acquisition of directionals in Q’anjob’al, a Western Mayan language of Guatemala. The data come from a longitudinal study of two Q’anjob’al monolingual children of Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala: Xhuw (1;9–2;5) and Xhim (2;3–3;5). The results show how these children acquire the morphological distribution of motion verbs and directionals in Q’anjob’al. They produce directionals parallel to motion verbs. Xhuw produced more motion verbs than directionals, while Xhim produced more directionals than motion verbs. Despite the omission of tense/aspect and agreement in the verb complex, these children produce two types of suffixes that distinguish motion verbs from directionals. The children acquired three groups of directionals in the following order: DIR3 (teq ‘toward X’, toq ‘away from X’) > DIR2 (el ‘out’ aj ‘up’ ok ‘enter, in’ ek’ ‘pass’ ay ‘down’) > DIR1 (kan ‘stay’).
{"title":"The acquisition of directionals in Q’anjob’al","authors":"Pedro Mateo Pedro","doi":"10.1177/01427237241228693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241228693","url":null,"abstract":"This article evaluates the acquisition of directionals in Q’anjob’al, a Western Mayan language of Guatemala. The data come from a longitudinal study of two Q’anjob’al monolingual children of Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala: Xhuw (1;9–2;5) and Xhim (2;3–3;5). The results show how these children acquire the morphological distribution of motion verbs and directionals in Q’anjob’al. They produce directionals parallel to motion verbs. Xhuw produced more motion verbs than directionals, while Xhim produced more directionals than motion verbs. Despite the omission of tense/aspect and agreement in the verb complex, these children produce two types of suffixes that distinguish motion verbs from directionals. The children acquired three groups of directionals in the following order: DIR3 (teq ‘toward X’, toq ‘away from X’) > DIR2 (el ‘out’ aj ‘up’ ok ‘enter, in’ ek’ ‘pass’ ay ‘down’) > DIR1 (kan ‘stay’).","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140047445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}