Crosslinguistic perspectives on argument structure / [edited by] Melissa Bowerman, Penelope Brown.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bowerman, Melissa.

Brown, Penelope.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Verb.

Semantics.

Physical Description:

viii, 370 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, [2008]

Summary:

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure: Implications for Learnability offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on verb argument structure and its role in language acquisition. Much contemporary work in linguistics and psychology assumes that argument structure is strongly constrained by a set of universal principles, and that these principles are innate, providing children with certain "bootstrapping" strategies that help them home in on basic aspects of the syntax and lexicon of their language. Drawing on a broad range of crosslinguistic data, this volume shows that languages are much more diverse in their argument structure properties than has been realized. This diversity raises challenges for many existing proposals about language acquisition, affects the range of solutions that can be considered plausible, and highlights new acquisition puzzles that until now have passed unnoticed.

The volume is the outcome of an integrated research project and comprises chapters by both specialists in first language acquisition and field linguists working on a variety of lesser-known languages. The research draws on original fieldwork and on adult data, child data, or both from thirteen languages from nine different language families. Some chapters offer typological perspectives, examining the basic structures of a given language with language-learnability issues in mind. Other chapters investigate specific problems of language acquisition in one or more languages. Taken as a whole, the volume illustrates how detailed work on crosslinguistic variation is critical to the development of insightful theories of language acquisition.

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure integrates important contemporary issues in linguistics and language acquisition. With its rich crosslinguistic base and the innovative empirical methods it showcases for studying the role of argument structure in language acquisition, it will be of great interest to linguists and language acquisition specialists alike, as well as to upper-level students in linguistics and psychology in the United States and abroad.

Contents:

Introduction / Melissa Bowerman and Penelope Brown

Verb meaning and verb syntax : cross-linguistic puzzles for language learners

A person, a place, or a thing? whorfian consequences of syntactic bootstrapping in Mopan Maya / Eve Danziger

The pitfalls of getting from here to there : bootstrapping the syntax and semantics of motion event coding in Yukatek Mayan / Jürgen Bohnemeyer

Making sense of complex verbs: on the semantics and argument structure of closed-class verbs and coverbs in jaminjung / Eva Schultze-Berndt

Figure-ground indeterminacy in descriptions of spatial relations : a construction grammar account / Sotaro Kita

Learning verbs without boots and straps? the problem of 'give' in Saliba / Anna Margetts

Participants present and absent : argument ellipsis and verb learning

Same argument structure, different meanings : learning "put" and "look" in Arrernte / David Wilkins

Verb specificity and argument realization in Tzeltal child language / Penelope Brown

Interacting pragmatic influences on children's argument realization / Shanley E.M. Allen

Transitivity, intransitivity, and their associated meanings : a complex work-space for learnability

Intransitive verbs in Ewe and the unaccusativity hypothesis / James Essegbey

He died old dying to be dead right: transitivity and semantic shifts of "die" in Ewe in crosslinguistic perspective / Felix Ameka

Acquiring telicity cross-linguistically : on the acquisition of telicity entailments associated with transitivity / Angeliekan Hout

The acquisition of the English causative alternation / Melissa Bowerman and William Croft

What adverbs have to do with learning the meaning of verbs / Angelika Wittek

Event realization in Tamil / Eric Pederson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

0805841946

9780805841947

1410616452

9781410616456

OCLC:

71321429

Online:

Publisher description