The acquisition of numeral classifiers : the case of Japanese children / by Kasumi Yamamoto.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yamamoto, Kasumi.

Series:

Studies on Language Acquisition [SOLA]

Studies on language acquisition ; 27

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japanese language--Numerals.

Japanese language.

Japanese language--Classifiers.

Language acquisition--Case studies.

Language acquisition.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The book is about the numeral classifier system and the acquisition of Japanese classifiers by Japanese children. It consists of two parts. First, it provides a general typological characterization of numeral classifier phrases and discusses problems in determining what constitutes the nature of classifiers. It also discusses the semantic properties of numeral classifiers based on an analysis of four languages from four different language families. Second, it examines the acquisitions of Japanese numeral classifiers by Japanese preschool children, ages 3 to 6, with a primary emphasis on the development of comprehension. The importance of the study is that it reveals that young children have a much greater sensitivity to the conceptual underpinnings of the numeral classifier system than was previously considered to be the case. The research results also provide a converging source of evidence that young children often come to initially grasp the structure of the world in ways that are better understood in cognitive than perceptual terms. The implications will contribute to not only the area of language acquisition but also categorization and conceptual development.

Contents:

Front matter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Previous acquisition research on numeral classifiers

Chapter 3. Present study

Chapter 4. General discussion and conclusion

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [190]-208) and index.

ISBN:

9783110914955

3110914956

OCLC:

811406185