The acquisition of V-V compounds in Japanese
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Miwa Isobe
Abstract
Japanese verbal compounds (V-V compounds) are known to consist of two verbs where a first verb in the preverbal form is adjoined to a second verb. Theoretical studies have demonstrated that there are two types of V-V compounds in Japanese: lexical and syntactic V-V compounds. Although the two classes of V-V compounds are superficially similar, they are notably distinct in many syntactic and semantic aspects and thus a question arises as to how children come to distinguish these two types of compounds. This study examines whether Japanese-speaking children aged 4–5 can differentiate the two types of Japanese V-V compounds. Our experiment revealed that there is a developmental stage in which children have acquired lexical V-V compounds but not syntactic ones.
Abstract
Japanese verbal compounds (V-V compounds) are known to consist of two verbs where a first verb in the preverbal form is adjoined to a second verb. Theoretical studies have demonstrated that there are two types of V-V compounds in Japanese: lexical and syntactic V-V compounds. Although the two classes of V-V compounds are superficially similar, they are notably distinct in many syntactic and semantic aspects and thus a question arises as to how children come to distinguish these two types of compounds. This study examines whether Japanese-speaking children aged 4–5 can differentiate the two types of Japanese V-V compounds. Our experiment revealed that there is a developmental stage in which children have acquired lexical V-V compounds but not syntactic ones.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Three streams of generative language acquisition research 1
-
Part I. Variation in input
- The comprehension of 3rd person singular -s by NYC English-speaking preschoolers 7
- Children’s acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 35
- Variability within varieties of English 59
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Part II. First language acquisition
- Parsing, pragmatics, and representation 85
- The interpretation of disjunction in VP ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese 107
- When OR is conjunctive in child Mandarin 125
- The acquisition of V-V compounds in Japanese 143
- Differentiating universal quantification from completive aspect in child Cantonese 159
- On the learnability of implicit arguments 185
- Red train, big train, broken train 203
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Part III. Second language acquisition
- The acquisition of Mandarin reflexives by heritage speakers and second language learners 225
- Interpretation of count and mass NPs by L2-learners from generalized classifier L1s 253
- Acquisition of word order in L2 Spanish 271
- Argument omission in SignL2 acquisition by deaf learners 297
- The Bottleneck Hypothesis updated 319
- Author index 347
- Subject index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Three streams of generative language acquisition research 1
-
Part I. Variation in input
- The comprehension of 3rd person singular -s by NYC English-speaking preschoolers 7
- Children’s acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 35
- Variability within varieties of English 59
-
Part II. First language acquisition
- Parsing, pragmatics, and representation 85
- The interpretation of disjunction in VP ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese 107
- When OR is conjunctive in child Mandarin 125
- The acquisition of V-V compounds in Japanese 143
- Differentiating universal quantification from completive aspect in child Cantonese 159
- On the learnability of implicit arguments 185
- Red train, big train, broken train 203
-
Part III. Second language acquisition
- The acquisition of Mandarin reflexives by heritage speakers and second language learners 225
- Interpretation of count and mass NPs by L2-learners from generalized classifier L1s 253
- Acquisition of word order in L2 Spanish 271
- Argument omission in SignL2 acquisition by deaf learners 297
- The Bottleneck Hypothesis updated 319
- Author index 347
- Subject index 355
