Learning the meaning of change-of-state verbs : a case study of German child language / by Angelika Wittek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wittek, Angelika, 1965-

Series:

Studies on language acquisition ; 17.

Studies on language acquisition ; 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition--Case studies.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Verb.

German language--Acquisition--Case studies.

German language--Acquisition.

Language acquisition.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

viii, 233 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2002.

Contents:

1. What does it take to learn the meaning of a verb? 1

1.1. Why learning the meaning of verbs is difficult 1

1.2. Why learning the meaning of change-of-state verbs should be easy, but it isn't - previewing the paradox 5

Chapter 2 A paradox: Learning the meaning of change-of-state verbs should be easy, but it isn't 15

1. Children are sensitive to state changes from early on 15

2. The learning problem: Children neglect the endstate in interpreting change-of-state verbs 20

2.1. Evidence for children's neglect of the endstate 20

2.2. Why would children neglect the endstate? 23

2.3. How to test the scope of the neglect of endstate: The Transparent Endstate Hypothesis 33

Chapter 3 Is the learning problem due to mapping problems? Testing the Transparent Endstate Hypothesis 39

1. How causal state changes are lexicalized in German 39

2. Experiment 1: Transparent endstates (Type: wachmachen 'awake-make') 45

2.4. A tree-based modeling analysis of the data 54

3. Experiment 2: Transparent endstates (Type: wachklingeln 'awake-ring') 61

4. Experiment 3: Transparent endstates made salient (Type: wachmachen 'awake-make') 68

4.1. Method 68

4.2. Experimental predictions 70

4.3. Results 71

4.4. A tree-based modeling analysis of the data 73

Chapter 4 A subtle learning problem: The Weak Endstate 83

1. The resolution of the paradox? 83

1.1. Characterizing children's interpretation of change-of-state verbs: the Weak Endstate 83

1.2. "Weak" endstates in the adult language 89

1.3. Change-of-state verbs in a broader crosslinguistic perspective 97

1.4. The learning problem is more subtle than we thought 102

2. How does the child correct inappropriate Weak Endstate interpretations? 106

2.1. The Syntactic Bootstrapping Hypothesis 107

2.2. A related proposal: Morphological Bootstrapping 114

2.3. The Semantic Structure Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis 116

Chapter 5 Modifiers as cues to verb meaning 121

1. How could the learner use modifiers as cues to verb meaning? 121

1.1. What do modifiers do? 121

1.2. The Adverbial Modification Cue Hypothesis 123

2. A candidate solution to the Weak Endstate problem: wieder 'again' 124

2.1. The properties of again 124

2.2. Restitutive again as an Adverbial Modification Cue 130

3. Do children have knowledge of restitutive wieder 'again', and do caretakers use it in their speech? 132

3.1. Evidence from previous studies 132

3.2. A Childes search 134

4. Children's and adults' use of restitutive wieder 'again' with change-of-state verbs: An exploratory study 138

Chapter 6 Testing the Adverbial Modification Cue Hypothesis 147

1. Developing an experimental design to test wieder 'again' as an Adverbial Modification Cue 147

2. Experiment 4: Testing wieder 'again' as a cue that a verb entails an endstate 149

3. Experiment 5 (control experiment) 162

3.1. Method 163

3.2. Experimental prediction 163

3.3. Results 164

4. General Discussion: A broader perspective on the Adverbial Modification Cue Hypothesis 168

Chapter 7 Summary: The status of the endstate in children's semantic representations of change-of-state verbs 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-225) and indexes.

ISBN:

3110173042

OCLC:

49648029