John Benjamins Publishing Company
Foundations of the early root category
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Dorit Ravid
Abstract
The Semitic root is commonly assumed to be the main lexical prime in Hebrew, relating morphological families in the major word classes. Psycholinguistic evidence supports the role of the consonantal root in acquisition and processing of Hebrew, from children’s early ability to extract roots from familiar words to spelling and reading in Hebrew by adults. There is, however, little information regarding the actual distribution of roots in verbs, their canonical habitat, in the Hebrew addressed to young children. To meet this lacuna, the authors examined verbs, roots, and binyan patterns in two types of linguistic input to children: (1) spoken – child-directed speech to toddlers aged 1;8–2;2 and (2) written – preschoolers’ storybooks and 1st-2nd grade texts. Input verbs were analyzed for type and token frequencies, distributions of full and defective roots, morphological verb families, and semantic relations between verbs sharing the same root. The picture that emerges challenges established views of root-based morphological families, providing the basis for a novel model of early verb and root learning in Hebrew.
Abstract
The Semitic root is commonly assumed to be the main lexical prime in Hebrew, relating morphological families in the major word classes. Psycholinguistic evidence supports the role of the consonantal root in acquisition and processing of Hebrew, from children’s early ability to extract roots from familiar words to spelling and reading in Hebrew by adults. There is, however, little information regarding the actual distribution of roots in verbs, their canonical habitat, in the Hebrew addressed to young children. To meet this lacuna, the authors examined verbs, roots, and binyan patterns in two types of linguistic input to children: (1) spoken – child-directed speech to toddlers aged 1;8–2;2 and (2) written – preschoolers’ storybooks and 1st-2nd grade texts. Input verbs were analyzed for type and token frequencies, distributions of full and defective roots, morphological verb families, and semantic relations between verbs sharing the same root. The picture that emerges challenges established views of root-based morphological families, providing the basis for a novel model of early verb and root learning in Hebrew.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Transcription and coding conventions ix
- Typology, acquisition, and development 1
- Paths and stages in acquisition of the phonological word in Hebrew 39
- Phonological development in Israeli Hebrew-learning infants and toddlers 69
- Foundations of the early root category 95
- Development of Hebrew derivational morphology from preschool to adolescence 135
- Lexical development in Hebrew 175
- The nature of CDS in Hebrew 201
- From opacity to transparency 225
- Development of intra- and inter-clausal dependency in Hebrew 259
- Expression of temporality in Hebrew narratives written by deaf adolescents 295
- Early development of written language in Hebrew 325
- Metalinguistic awareness in reading Hebrew L2 353
- Author Index 387
- Subject Index 395
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Transcription and coding conventions ix
- Typology, acquisition, and development 1
- Paths and stages in acquisition of the phonological word in Hebrew 39
- Phonological development in Israeli Hebrew-learning infants and toddlers 69
- Foundations of the early root category 95
- Development of Hebrew derivational morphology from preschool to adolescence 135
- Lexical development in Hebrew 175
- The nature of CDS in Hebrew 201
- From opacity to transparency 225
- Development of intra- and inter-clausal dependency in Hebrew 259
- Expression of temporality in Hebrew narratives written by deaf adolescents 295
- Early development of written language in Hebrew 325
- Metalinguistic awareness in reading Hebrew L2 353
- Author Index 387
- Subject Index 395
