Learning indigenous languages : child language acquisition in Mesoamerica / edited by Barbara Pfeiler.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pfeiler, Barbara Blaha, 1952-

Series:

Studies on language acquisition 1861-4248 ; 33.

Studies on language acquisition, 1861-4248 ; 33

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Indians of Central America--Languages.

Indians of Central America.

Physical Description:

vi, 209 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, [2007]

Summary:

This book includes six studies on the acquisition of single Mesoamerican indigenous languages, (Huichol, Zapotec, and the Mayan languages Ch'ol, Tzeltal, K'iche', and Yukatek); and a crosslinguistic study of five Mayan languages (K'anjob'al, K'iche', Tzeltal, Tzotzil, and Yukatek). Three topics are theoretically and methodologically discussed and empirically demonstrated: with respect to ergativity, the ergative-absolutive cross-referencing pattern on the morphological level, noun-verb distinction and the acquisition of body-part locatives in the early lexicon, and the role of semantic properties and cultural context in language acquisition and socialization. This book makes important claims regarding the methodology of cross-linguistic studies as well as the results of these studies and the comparative method used in the book (structural and discursive factors in language acquisition, cross-linguistic relationships and variation).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9783110195590

3110195593

OCLC:

144768977