Language-specific properties influence children's acquisition of argument structure

Abstract

Children's acquisition of verb argument structure (VAS) involves learning the number and placement of the required and optional arguments associated with each verb, as well as, in some languages, the grammatical morphemes that mark each argument's role. In this paper, we investigate whether some language-specific properties of Turkish and Mandarin lead to different developmental patterns in the acquisition of VAS as compared to English. Previous research, primarily with English learners, has suggested that the acquisition of VAS is promoted by lexical factors such as word frequency and the principles of Uniqueness and Entrenchment (e.g., Brooks & Tomasello, 1999; Clark, 1987; Naigles, Fowler & Helm, 1992). Research with children learning other languages, though, has reported differences in the patterns and/or instigating factors of VAS acquisition. In particular, grammatical factors pertaining to prepositional phrases, word order, and verb morphology seem relevant for specific languages (e.g., French, K'iche Maya, and Sesotho; see Demuth, Machobane, & Moloi, 2003; Naigles & Lehrer, 2002; Pye, 1994, for discussion).