Abstract
Study of the acquisition of verb argument structure is an area that has seen considerable growth in recent years, particularly since the appearance of Pinker’s (1989) study of the acquisition of argument structure alternations (see e.g., Brinkman, 1995;Gropen et al., 1989;Gropen et al., 1991;Ingham, 1990,Ingham, 1993/4; Naigles, 1990). In this paper we wish to investigate a relatively less studied aspect of argument structure in children’s language. Although some light has been cast on constraints that underlie argument structure alternations, and the lexical representations involved in argument structure alternations that can be ascribed to children, not much is known about how argument structure typically develops in use between the pre-school and early school years, and whether certain argument structure realisations are more typical of certain stages of development than others. Our intention in this paper is to investigate this issue, focusing on a few of the better studied argument structure types, especially those involving what can loosely be called location events, in which an entity moves or is moved to another location.
Article FootNote
*This research was partially supported by ESRC Award R000234135.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bowerman, M. (1990). Mapping thematic roles onto syntactic functions: are children helped by innate linking rules? Linguistics 28,1253–1289.
Braine, M., R. Brody, S. Fisch, M. Weisberger, & M. Blum (1990). Can children use a verb without exposure to its argument structure? Journal of Child Language 17,313–342.
Brinkmann, U. (1995). The Iticative alternation: its structure and acquisition. PhD Thesis University of Nijmegen.
Carter, R. (1988). “On linking”. Papers by Richard Carter, edited by B. Levin, & C. Tenny. Lexicon Project working papers No. 25. Centre for Cognitive Science, MIT.
Fletcher, P., & M. Garman (1988). Normal language development and language impairment: syntax and beyond. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 2,2, 97–133.
Fletcher, P., R. Ingham, C. Schelleter, & 1. Sinka (in preparation). Verb alternations in English-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment. Ms. University of Hong Kong.
Gleitman, L. (1990). The structural sources of word meaning. Language Acquisition 1, 3–55.
Gropen, J., S. Pinker, M. Hollander, R. Goldberg, & R. Wilson (1989). The learnability and acquisition of the dative alternation in English. Language 65, 203–257.
Gropen, J. S. Pinker, M. Hollander, & R. Goldberg (1991). Affectedness and Direct Objects: the role of lexical semantics in the acquisition of verb argument structure. Cognition 91,153–195.
Ingham, R. (1990). Lexical structure and children’s syntax. in: M. Forrester, L.-A. Smith, & B. Shire (eds.):Proceedings of the 1990 Child Language Seminar, University of Kent at Canterbury, pp. 74–85.
Ingham, R. (1993/4). Input and learnability: Direct-Object Omissibility in English. Language Acquisition 3/2, 95–120.
Ingham, R., P. Fletcher, C. Schelleter, & I. Sinka (in press). Resultative VPs and Specific Language Impairment. To appear in Language Acquisition 8.
Naigles, L. (1990). Children use syntax to learn verb meanings. Journal of Child Language 17, 357–374.
Marchman, V., & L. Bates (1994). Continuity in lexical and morphological development. Journal of Child Language 21, 339–36.
Pinker, S. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Pinker, S. (1989). Learnability and cognition: the acquisition of argument structure. MIT Press.
Pye, C. (1994). A crosslinguistic approach to the causative alternation In: Y. Levy (ed.) Other children, other Erlbaum: New Jersey
Slobin, D. (1981). The origins of grammatical encoding of events. In W. Deutsch (ed.) The child’s construction of language. London: Academic Press.
Slobin, D. (1985). A crosslinguistic approach to language acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum: Hillsdale.
Tomasello, M. (1992). First verbs. CUP.
Van der Lely, H. (1994). Canonical linking rules: forward versus reverse linking in normally developing and specifically languageimpaired children. Cognition 51, 29–72.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ingham, R., Schelletter, C., Sinka, I. (2000). Argument Structure Preferences in Pre-School and School-Age Children*. In: Perkins, M., Howard, S. (eds) New Directions In Language Development And Disorders. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4157-8_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4157-8_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6865-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4157-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive