The retreat from transitive-causative overgeneralization errors
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Ben Ambridge
Abstract
This chapter summarises research on how children avoid overgeneralizations of verb argument structure, focussing on the transitive-causative construction (e.g. *I’m dancing it [c.f. I’m making it dance]). It then presents some new data that bear on this issue: diary data of these types of utterances produced by the second author (from birth up until age 4;0), collected by the first author. These data are used to argue that, although errors from the point of view of the adult grammar, many of these utterances are in fact perfectly matched to the communicative needs of each situation; more so in fact than the corresponding adult forms would have been. For example, the utterances Can you jump me off?, Jump me!, Jump me down and Jump me up there do not mean ‘Do something that indirectly causes ME to instigate jumping’; the meaning implied by the periphrastic-causative construction (e.g., “Can you make me jump?”). Rather, the type of causation intended here is single-event, direct, external causation, of almost exactly the type that is typically conveyed by the transitive-causative construction (e.g., I broke a cup). The rather radical implication is that semantics must be represented not at the level of the verb but of individual events, necessitating an exemplar model under which (in principle) all witnessed utterances are stored along with some representation of the event to which they refer.
Abstract
This chapter summarises research on how children avoid overgeneralizations of verb argument structure, focussing on the transitive-causative construction (e.g. *I’m dancing it [c.f. I’m making it dance]). It then presents some new data that bear on this issue: diary data of these types of utterances produced by the second author (from birth up until age 4;0), collected by the first author. These data are used to argue that, although errors from the point of view of the adult grammar, many of these utterances are in fact perfectly matched to the communicative needs of each situation; more so in fact than the corresponding adult forms would have been. For example, the utterances Can you jump me off?, Jump me!, Jump me down and Jump me up there do not mean ‘Do something that indirectly causes ME to instigate jumping’; the meaning implied by the periphrastic-causative construction (e.g., “Can you make me jump?”). Rather, the type of causation intended here is single-event, direct, external causation, of almost exactly the type that is typically conveyed by the transitive-causative construction (e.g., I broke a cup). The rather radical implication is that semantics must be represented not at the level of the verb but of individual events, necessitating an exemplar model under which (in principle) all witnessed utterances are stored along with some representation of the event to which they refer.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. Levels of acquisition
- Learning how to communicate in infancy 11
- Heads, shoulders, knees and toes 39
- Insights from studying statistical learning 65
- From grammatical categories to processes of categorization 91
- The retreat from transitive-causative overgeneralization errors 113
- Where form meets meaning in the acquisition of grammatical constructions 131
- Social cognitive and later language acquisition 155
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Part 2. Levels of variation
- The emergence of gesture during prelinguistic interaction 173
- Individual differences in first language acquisition and their theoretical implications 189
- Understanding the cross-linguistic pattern of verb-marking error in typically developing children and children with Developmental Language Disorder 221
- Sampling linguistic diversity to understand language development 247
- Lessons from studying language development in bilingual children 263
- Language disorders and autism 287
- Index 323
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. Levels of acquisition
- Learning how to communicate in infancy 11
- Heads, shoulders, knees and toes 39
- Insights from studying statistical learning 65
- From grammatical categories to processes of categorization 91
- The retreat from transitive-causative overgeneralization errors 113
- Where form meets meaning in the acquisition of grammatical constructions 131
- Social cognitive and later language acquisition 155
-
Part 2. Levels of variation
- The emergence of gesture during prelinguistic interaction 173
- Individual differences in first language acquisition and their theoretical implications 189
- Understanding the cross-linguistic pattern of verb-marking error in typically developing children and children with Developmental Language Disorder 221
- Sampling linguistic diversity to understand language development 247
- Lessons from studying language development in bilingual children 263
- Language disorders and autism 287
- Index 323
