Academic Journal
A Prosodic Account of Complex Predicate Acquisition in Mam: A Mayan Language
| العنوان: | A Prosodic Account of Complex Predicate Acquisition in Mam: A Mayan Language |
|---|---|
| اللغة: | English |
| المؤلفون: | Clifton Pye (ORCID |
| المصدر: | First Language. 2024 44(6):657-685. |
| الاتاحة: | SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 29 |
| تاريخ النشر: | 2024 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) |
| Contract Number: | 0613120 0515120 |
| نوع الوثيقة: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Intonation, Suprasegmentals, American Indian Languages, Vowels, Phonology, Language Acquisition, Vocabulary Development, Semantics, Phrase Structure, Child Language, Phonemes, Morphemes, Verbs, Toddlers, Language Variation, American Indians, Morphology (Languages), Linguistic Theory, Foreign Countries |
| مصطلحات جغرافية: | Guatemala |
| DOI: | 10.1177/01427237241232741 |
| تدمد: | 0142-7237 1740-2344 |
| مستخلص: | The Mayan language Mam uses complex predicates to express events. Complex predicates map multiple semantic elements onto a single word, and consequently have a blend of lexical and phrasal features. The chameleon-like nature of complex predicates provides a window on children's ability to express phrasal combinations at the one-word stage of language development. The ubiquity of complex predicates in the adult language insures that children will produce complex predicates as some of their first words. The verb complex in Mam has obligatory inflections for aspect, person, and to a degree direction. The inflections vary in degree of attachment between syllable segments, affixes, and clitics. Inflections with vowels are phonologically free, while inflections without vowels attach as either syllable segments or affixes. The Mam verb complex requires the addition of a phrasal layer to prosodic models of lexical acquisition. The paper used this extended version of prosodic theory to make five predictions for the acquisition of the verb complex. The paper analyzes production data for three children between 2;0 and 2;8 acquiring the northern variety of Mam spoken in San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The children's production data for both the intransitive and transitive verb complexes support all five predictions to some degree. The children produced prefixes more frequently on vowel-initial stems than on consonant-initial stems, and they produced imperative suffixes more frequently than prefixes on consonant-initial stems. The children exhibited developmental differences and produced phrasal contractions that the prosodic theory did not predict. The results underline the need to integrate prosody into models of morphosyntactic development, and highlight the significance of complex predicates for theories of language acquisition. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2024 |
| رقم الانضمام: | EJ1450166 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | ERIC |
| تدمد: | 0142-7237 1740-2344 |
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| DOI: | 10.1177/01427237241232741 |