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Nouns and verbs in Chintang: children's usage and surrounding adult speech


Stoll, Sabine; Bickel, Balthasar; Lieven, Elena; Banjade, Goma; Bhatta, Toya Nath; Gaenszle, Martin; Paudyal, Netra P; Pettigrew, Judith; Rai, Ichchha Purna; Rai, Manoj; Rai, Novel Kishore (2012). Nouns and verbs in Chintang: children's usage and surrounding adult speech. Journal of Child Language, 39(2):284 - 321.

Abstract

Analyzing the development of the noun-to-verb ratio in a longitudinal corpus of four Chintang (Sino-Tibetan) children, we find that up to about age four, children have a significantly higher ratio than adults. Previous cross-linguistic research rules out an explanation of this in terms of a universal noun bias; instead, a likely cause is that Chintang verb morphology is polysynthetic and difficult to learn. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the development of Chintang children's noun-to-verb ratio correlates significantly with the extent to which they show a similar flexibility with verbal morphology to that of the surrounding adults, as measured by morphological paradigm entropy. While this development levels off around age three, children continue to have a higher overall noun-to-verb ratio than adults. A likely explanation lies in the kinds of activities that children are engaged in and that are almost completely separate from adults' activities in this culture.

Abstract

Analyzing the development of the noun-to-verb ratio in a longitudinal corpus of four Chintang (Sino-Tibetan) children, we find that up to about age four, children have a significantly higher ratio than adults. Previous cross-linguistic research rules out an explanation of this in terms of a universal noun bias; instead, a likely cause is that Chintang verb morphology is polysynthetic and difficult to learn. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the development of Chintang children's noun-to-verb ratio correlates significantly with the extent to which they show a similar flexibility with verbal morphology to that of the surrounding adults, as measured by morphological paradigm entropy. While this development levels off around age three, children continue to have a higher overall noun-to-verb ratio than adults. A likely explanation lies in the kinds of activities that children are engaged in and that are almost completely separate from adults' activities in this culture.

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Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:06 Faculty of Arts > Department of Comparative Language Science
Dewey Decimal Classification:490 Other languages
890 Other literatures
410 Linguistics
Scopus Subject Areas:Social Sciences & Humanities > Language and Linguistics
Social Sciences & Humanities > Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Social Sciences & Humanities > Developmental and Educational Psychology
Social Sciences & Humanities > Linguistics and Language
Social Sciences & Humanities > General Psychology
Language:English
Date:2012
Deposited On:23 Dec 2013 14:55
Last Modified:10 Nov 2023 02:43
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
ISSN:0305-0009
Additional Information:Copyright: Cambridge University Press
OA Status:Green
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000911000080
  • Content: Accepted Version