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Theses, dissertations and research publications (including journal articles, conference abstracts and books) from Lund University are collected in this database. Where possible, the option to download a full text document is available. It is also possible to search for Lund University student theses in the student theses database.
| Title | The role of input frequency and semantic transparency in the acquisition of verb meaning: Evidence from placement verbs in Tamil and Dutch |
| Author/s | Bhuvana Narasimhan, Marianne Gullberg |
| Department/s |
Humanities Lab
Linguistics and Phonetics |
| Full-text | Full text is not available in this archive |
| Alternative location (URL) | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S030... |
| Publication/Series | Journal of Child Language |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 504 - 532 |
| Document type | Journal article |
| Status | published |
| Quality controlled | yes |
| Language | English |
| Abstract English | We investigate how Tamil- and Dutch-speaking adults and 4- to-5-year-old children use caused posture verbs (‘lay/stand a bottle on a table’) to label placement events in which objects are oriented vertically or horizontally. Tamil caused posture verbs consist of morphemes that individually label the causal and result subevents (nikka veyyii ‘make stand’; paDka veyyii ‘make lie’), occurring in situational and discourse contexts where object orientation is at issue. Dutch caused posture verbs are less semantically transparent: they are monomorphemic (zetten ‘set/stand’; leggen ‘lay’), often occurring in contexts where factors other than object orientation determine use. Caused posture verbs occur rarely in Tamil input corpora; in Dutch input, they are used frequently. Elicited production data reveal that Tamil four-year-olds use infrequent placement verbs appropriately whereas Dutch children use highfrequency placement verbs inappropriately even at age five. Semantic transparency exerts a stronger influence than input frequency in constraining children’s verb meaning acquisition. |
| Subject |
Languages and Literatures |
| Keywords | input frequency, semantic transparency, placement events, child language acquisition, caused posture verbs, Tamil, Dutch |
| Project | Cognition, Communication and Learning |
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