The acquisition of locational incorporation structures in Inuktitut

• Main Author: Davis, Erica
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Atlantic Provinces Linguistic Association 2017
• Subjects: inuktitut
• Online Access: https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/la/article/view/25500

Locative noun incorporation constructions in Inuktitut behave differently in the adult grammar than donon-locative instances. This study investigates whether the production of locative incorporation differsfrom other noun incorporation structures over the course of acquisition. One would expect locativeincorporation to be more difficult to acquire and therefore to emerge later, however this does not appearto be the case. Despite the added complexity of optional possessors and the added syntactic complexityof locational postpositions, locative incorporation appears to be acquired early and similarly to nounincorporation as both structures are produced by all children at the earliest ages studied. Additionally,an interesting pattern of acquisition emerged in the production of possessives. A phonologically reducedpossessor form emerges for several of the children, however the possessor is never reduced in the adultgrammar. Morphosyntactically speaking, this shows evidence of acquisition. The production of thereduced possessor shows that the concept is acquired in terms of morphology and syntax but is not yetfully acquired phonologically.