Competition between word order and case-marking in interpreting grammatical relations

A case study in multilingual acquisition

Bibliographic Data

ID20367358
AuthorsCarmel O''Shannessy (0000-0003-4914-9693, University of Michigan, corresponding author), Carmel O'Shannessy
Year2011
Volume38
Issue4
Pages763-792
Publication date2011-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Child Language (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-0009 • E-ISSN: 1469-7602
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0305000910000358
PMID21054915
OpenAlexW2123028080
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited27

The study examines strategies multilingual children use to interpret grammatical relations, focusing on their two primary languages, Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri. Both languages use mixed systems for indicating grammatical relations. In both languages ergative–absolutive case-marking indicates core arguments, but to different extents in each language. In Lajamanu Warlpiri, pronominal clitics in a nominative–accusative pattern also indicate core arguments, and in Light Warlpiri word order in a nominative–accusative pattern partially does so. The study asks which sentence interpretation strategies children rely on most, when they learn to rely on them and whether cross-linguistic influences are seen. Children aged 5 ; 0, 7 ; 0 and 9 ; 0 and adults saw paired, animated events simultaneously on video and heard a transitive sentence spoken. The participants pointed to the event depicted by the sentence heard. Adults used a case-marking strategy consistently in both languages. Children initially used both case-marking and word order strategies, but used case-marking more often as age increased

Language acquisition · Linguistics · Second-language acquisition · Word order · Language Development and Disorders · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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