Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse
An influential claim in the child language literature posits that children use structural cues in the input language to acquire verb meaning (Gleitman, 1990). One such cue is the number of arguments co-occurring with the verb, which provides an indication as to the event type associated with the ver...
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ftclarkuniv:oai:commons.clarku.edu:faculty_psychology-1188 2023-10-29T02:37:30+01:00 Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse Narasimhan, Bhuvana Budwig, Nancy Murty, Lalita 2005-04-01T08:00:00Z text/html https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_psychology/189 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 unknown Clark Digital Commons https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_psychology/189 doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 Psychology argument realization discourse-pragmatics ellipsis Ergative construction Hindi input L1-acquisition Psychology text 2005 ftclarkuniv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 2023-10-01T16:22:39Z An influential claim in the child language literature posits that children use structural cues in the input language to acquire verb meaning (Gleitman, 1990). One such cue is the number of arguments co-occurring with the verb, which provides an indication as to the event type associated with the verb (Fisher, 1995). In some languages however (e.g. Hindi), verb arguments are ellipted relatively freely, subject to certain discourse-pragmatic constraints. In this paper, we address three questions: Is the pervasive argument ellipsis characteristic of adult Hindi also found in Hindi-speaking caregivers' input? If so, do children consequently make errors in verb transitivity? How early do children learning a split-ergative language, such as Hindi, exhibit sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic influences on argument realization? We show that there is massive argument ellipsis in caregivers' input to 3-4 year-olds. However, children acquiring Hindi do not make transitivity errors in their own speech. Nor do they elide arguments randomly. Rather, even at this early age, children appear to be sensitive to discourse-pragmatics in their own spontaneous speech production. These findings in a split-ergative language parallel patterns of argument realization found in children acquiring both nominative-accusative languages (e.g. Korean) and ergative-absolutive languages (e.g. Tzeltal, Inuktitut). © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Text inuktitut Clark University: Clark Digital Commons Journal of Pragmatics 37 4 461 495 |
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Clark University: Clark Digital Commons |
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argument realization discourse-pragmatics ellipsis Ergative construction Hindi input L1-acquisition Psychology |
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argument realization discourse-pragmatics ellipsis Ergative construction Hindi input L1-acquisition Psychology Narasimhan, Bhuvana Budwig, Nancy Murty, Lalita Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse |
topic_facet |
argument realization discourse-pragmatics ellipsis Ergative construction Hindi input L1-acquisition Psychology |
description |
An influential claim in the child language literature posits that children use structural cues in the input language to acquire verb meaning (Gleitman, 1990). One such cue is the number of arguments co-occurring with the verb, which provides an indication as to the event type associated with the verb (Fisher, 1995). In some languages however (e.g. Hindi), verb arguments are ellipted relatively freely, subject to certain discourse-pragmatic constraints. In this paper, we address three questions: Is the pervasive argument ellipsis characteristic of adult Hindi also found in Hindi-speaking caregivers' input? If so, do children consequently make errors in verb transitivity? How early do children learning a split-ergative language, such as Hindi, exhibit sensitivity to discourse-pragmatic influences on argument realization? We show that there is massive argument ellipsis in caregivers' input to 3-4 year-olds. However, children acquiring Hindi do not make transitivity errors in their own speech. Nor do they elide arguments randomly. Rather, even at this early age, children appear to be sensitive to discourse-pragmatics in their own spontaneous speech production. These findings in a split-ergative language parallel patterns of argument realization found in children acquiring both nominative-accusative languages (e.g. Korean) and ergative-absolutive languages (e.g. Tzeltal, Inuktitut). © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
format |
Text |
author |
Narasimhan, Bhuvana Budwig, Nancy Murty, Lalita |
author_facet |
Narasimhan, Bhuvana Budwig, Nancy Murty, Lalita |
author_sort |
Narasimhan, Bhuvana |
title |
Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse |
title_short |
Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse |
title_full |
Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse |
title_fullStr |
Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse |
title_full_unstemmed |
Argument realization in Hindi caregiver-child discourse |
title_sort |
argument realization in hindi caregiver-child discourse |
publisher |
Clark Digital Commons |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_psychology/189 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 |
genre |
inuktitut |
genre_facet |
inuktitut |
op_source |
Psychology |
op_relation |
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_psychology/189 doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.005 |
container_title |
Journal of Pragmatics |
container_volume |
37 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
461 |
op_container_end_page |
495 |
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1781062358253174784 |